Who ever thought to see archaeological sites empty of tourists, or grounded airplanes without any flights, or largest cities empty of people or more than two-thirds of the Earth’s population stuck at homes for more than two months?! All of this was a fantasy, but it happened!
At the beginning of the year 2020, an invisible enemy invaded Earth and had a huge social and economic impact unseen by Earth since the end of World War II. It is the virus that is now known as "Covid-19"! We are not used to forcibly staying at homes. But due to the fear of getting infected by this deadly virus, that was the most successful solution to curb the spread of this pandemic and preserve our lives. The news about the pandemic began to spread quickly, and anxiety started controlling our minds. That is normal especially when the human mind is not able anymore to understand the frightening reality that imposed itself.
The anxiety prevailed and possessed me for two weeks despite the many attempts that I made to prevent it! It was mixed with a feeling of worry about the health of my family, my mother and father, who was already suffering from heart and lung problems. I was worried that the pandemic would reach “Al Mina”, the city where I and my family live. I started focusing more on following preventive measures and protecting ourselves from the pandemic. I also explained these measures to my family. Knowing that I was entrusted to go and buy the basic needs of food and medicine from the market, and I prevented anyone in the house from doing so. Stopping my work at the workshop was an additional factor that increased anxiety, mood swings, and discomfort after it has taken an important space in my life.
I had to find proper ways to overcome my anxiety. The news was the main factor in increasing my anxiety, especially that people were sharing it on social media without checking its validity or the publisher’s. Thus, I decided as a first step to refrain from intensively watching the daily news, and I started to watch only the evening news on TV. As a second step, I started to search for useful home activities to spend time in a good and effective way. First of all, I put together a list of hobbies that I could not practice in the past due to my busy lifestyle. Then I started collecting books and novels that I had previously purchased but had no time to read, and I set a timeline to finish reading them all.
Among the hobbies that I had ignored overtime was cooking. This hobby was not appealing to my mother because she does not want anyone to enter her kingdom and mess with her tools! But I reached an agreement with her that I can use kitchen appliances only under her supervision. I also agreed to compensate her for every tool that might break, especially her Tefal pans! I decided to make a cake, so I contacted my friend who is famous for preparing various types of cakes and asked her to send me the recipe. I started mixing the ingredients according to her ideal way of doing it. Then I waited for the baking to finish as if I was someone waiting for his wife giving birth to their first child! After 50 minutes, the cake was ready. It looked very delicious and the smell was breathtaking! Everyone was so excited to taste it so we waited until it became cold. Then I sliced and it was ready to be eaten. And here was the tragic surprise! The cake was salty! My friend had misinterpreted the ingredients, and instead of saying a teaspoon of salt, she told me to put a tablespoon of salt! And instead of eating it with jam, I ate it with peanut butter! That was my first and last experience in the kitchen!
The next day, I decided to return to planting. So I prepared plastic pots that were left behind and filled them with soil and scattered a few flower seeds that were left from last year. I also made a large wooden pot and filled it with soil then planted some flowers that I took from my neighbors’ pots. I was very passionate about cultivation, especially because I adore flowers, greenery, and nature. Coincidentally, I discovered a Facebook group called "Izraa" which gathers experienced farmers who publish useful information about planting and taking care of plants. This group encouraged me to invest in the land surrounding my brother's house in the “Koura” region, so I decided to grow vegetables. I started guarding and preparing it for cultivation. I went to the nursery and bought the seedlings of cucumber, eggplant, zucchini, tomato, pepper, and other vegetables. Then I planted them as recommended by one of the experts in the group.
Returning to planting and my old hobbies, that I stopped because of the fast lifestyle that imposed itself on us, brought me a pleasant feeling. I felt as if this pandemic was a warning to humanity to take a break and return to things we missed. It urged us to spend more time with the family and care more about our family members. Despite its many negative impacts, this pandemic had a positive side. This is also the philosophy and law of life where everything has some positivity. No matter how negative they appear, we must always search for the good things in them.
Ghassan El Bakri, 32, architect and miniature ships craftsman, Lebanese living in Al Mina North Lebanon
Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash