“April is the cruelest month” wrote T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land. Indeed. We’re just on Day One, but I’m thinking: this is going to be tough. Most of us are in some form of lockdown, the news is more and more grim, the sheer scale of things is really starting to sink in.
Today also happens to be National Walking Day. My daily perambulations feel all the more precious as others are forbidden the pleasure. I cut wide, appreciative arcs around neighbors, waving across the distance.
And so (because this is how my mind works), I’m connecting all these disparate dots and thinking: I need a Curiosity Walk #StayHome edition. I need to treat my surroundings not as a cage, but as an exotic photo safari.
I need the creative outlet.
I need the diversion.
Where better to begin than with toilet paper, totem of our times?
April 1: The Bathroom
April 2: Doorknobs (We’re almost as obsessed about them these days…)
April 3: Spring (One of the many things I love about living in the DC area is that spring comes when it’s supposed to. This is what it looks like in my yard today.)
April 4: Windows (Our view on the world has changed — windows now as much a view inward as out.)
April 5: Hardware (A day spent in cleaning reacquaints one with home’s hardware.)
April 6: Steps (Today I had to remind myself: a step at a time. So that’s where I focused.)
April 7: Polly (Today is my grandmother’s birthday. All sorts of things remind me of her.)
April 8: Breathe (As in: barely time, yet don’t forget.)
April 9: Radiators (It’s hot, it’s cold. It’s April. The radiators aren’t sure what to do.)
April 10: Signatures (Much of my time is spent signing stuff these days. I hope paychecks remain among them. So I went looking for others’ marks around home as well.)
April 11: Reflection (I start my mornings with reflection. Then it was everywhere.)
April 12: Scavenge (In lieu of an Easter egg hunt, my niece sent us all on a scavenger hunt. This is my quarry: something alive, a gift from an old friend, something handmade, a souvenir & something “disposable” being used past it expiration date.)
April 13: Rain (The ding of a FEMA alert woke me early and inspired today’s theme.)
April 14: Animals (Forget Tiger King. I found my own zoo.)
April 15: Infrastructure (Tax Day seemed an appropriate occasion to capture the critical systems that support the household.)
April 16: Green (Everything is very very green, and in every imaginable shade.)
April 17: Time (It’s not just me, right? Time has gotten warpy.)
April 18: Faces (Between masks and Zoom, it’s all about faces.)
April 19: Little Free Libraries (I’ve been impressed with the steady traffic at the two libraries I steward, so I set out to see how many others I could spot on my mid-day walk.)
April 20: Faucet, Spigot, Tap (Brought to you by today’s search for flow.)
April 21: The View (I spent a lot of time at my desk today. Lucky for me, the view is pretty nice. Today I really appreciated the textures.)
April 22: Shadow (On this sunny Earth Day, I enjoyed these hints to our alignment, puny planet to brilliant star.)
April 23: Trashcans (Inspired by potter, activist and apparent philosopher Stacy Snyder’s reminder yesterday that all things want to be considered, I considered my trashcans.)
April 24: Smell (I find myself particularly appreciative of my sense of smell.)
April 25: Collections (Getting meta: a collection of collections. Which raises questions of intent and definition — just when does something go from accumulation to collection?)
April 26: Pattern (As I wrestle with the paradox of routine [comfort/constraint], I notice the other foundational patterns that define my days and the space I inhabit.)
April 27: Reading (Even if only for a few minutes before bed, I’ve found reading something other than my Twitter feed and the news has been critical to a good night’s sleep and every day’s equanimity. This is what I’ve read or am reading this month. Tickled to include one new release [Curiosity Studies] and one galley/forth-coming [Out of My Skull].)
April 28: Still Life (Suspended animation & a grey day call for still life, in black & white.)
April 29: Morning Walk (My walks are both escape from and reminder of the pandemic.)
April 30: Refrigerator Rainbow (Nothing seems adequate to the elegant, eloquent finish I’d like for this month of looking for thematic delights in my everyday confinement, but my refrigerator rainbow has a certain alliterative appeal that will have to do. May all our containers be colorful, friends.) #StayHome #StayWell
