April 3, 2020, by Jem

Lockdown Growth

I’ve been asked to stay indoors by my country and the world. I didn’t put up a fight because they have the military advantage. I don’t mind staying indoors much anyway. I know how to use these times wisely. Each day, I do a quiz and a jigsaw, which is to say: I am becoming more and more intelligent.

I have removed everything hanging up in my wardrobe, so as to leave the hanging-rail bare. Each day, I get into my wardrobe and grip the rail with my hands and hold myself above the ground for ten minutes. This has strengthened my arms and made my heart remember its speed, which is to say: I am becoming more and more strong.

Have you noticed the peace? There’s plenty of it now. Shy creatures, who had tucked themselves away from our ruckuses, are thankful for our hush. Through the glass of my window, I see frightened birds growing in confidence; first flying from their hedges, then out into the sky, out then up, then higher, then feeling the force of cloud-height wind ,  laughing at themselves, thinking Look at me, I’m doing it, I’m flying, then diving down swiftly to tell the other shy hedge birds to come out, come out, the sky is free of planes and their scratches, there is not a thing to be afraid of. Each day, I make the most of this sky, which is to say: I am becoming better at staring.

My hob is installed indoors. There is cooking to be done, to be mastered. I am focusing on pulses, i.e. lentils, peas, beans, and I make meals not of meats, or sweets, or gravies, or sauces, but pulses – just pulses. Lockdown growth requires such challenges. Each day, I unpack, cook, and eat a bag of pulses, which is to say: I am becoming more and more gaseous.

Now I turn to you. You who are also indoors, what can you say? In these times, do you grow? Stronger? Wiser?… Idler? I have given you my example. I am as confined as anyone, and yet see what I have achieved, see what I have done for my growth. A little advice: Resist fruitless pastimes, digital dreamlands, and other accelerators of time.

Will these times to end, but do not will these times to pass.

Each day, do as I do, GROW.

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