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In the time of coronavirus

A collection of stories submitted by the public on their experience of living through the time of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives. Globally the scale of human suffering as a consequence of Covid-19 has been very great. Everywhere people are now reflecting on what this major and previously unimaginable global crisis means for us, as individuals, living in the 21st century. This forum offers a space for writers to reflect on their experience in Aotearoa and to consider questions such as: What might we need to remember and preserve? What has been my experience, my observations, how might my priorities have shifted, in a good way, as a result of the lockdowns? If you would like to contribute to the re-collective effort through any of the following life writing formats — journalling, nature writing, memoir, commentary, poetry, notes on work in progress during lockdown… — please make initial contact through my contact page. Next prepare a page of A4 writing, starting in the present moment and moving where you need to into the recent past and forwards from that point, with a title, brief bio, photo (optional) and your contribution will be added to the repository of important writings flowering in this space.

"We are here; we are human beings; this is how we lived. Let it be known, the earth passed before us. Our details are important."
Natalie Goldberg, Writing down the Bones (1986)

Eating Lockdown by Lora Mountjoy

24/8/2021

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​Lora is grateful for her life. She dances for pleasure and writes for connection to herself and others.


Wednesday: the honeymoon phase. I feel my neck unclench and mind relax as I rediscover peace in having little to do but recalibrate. I do, however, have to buy supplies and my adult children have been on the phone, concerned about Coromandel’s hotspot status, making me promise not to go into the local Four Square. I had a dental appointment today in Whitianga and had let stocks ran low, depending on doing a big shop in the supermarket there. But it’s a do nothing day and all this is shoved aside.

Thursday I wake early and by six thirty am sitting up in bed with a coffee and my laptop, making an order for delivery from Countdown. It won’t arrive till Wednesday of next week, 3.30pm. There are only two things I need before then. One is butter for the sourdough loaf I made yesterday, the other is enough coffee.

Later, I contact my neighbour over the road. With her heart problem she doesn’t use much butter, but may have some in the freezer. I beg a small slice. Then, when in phone conversation with a friend in the next street I reveal my fears about the coffee situation, I am told not to worry. She recently ordered 2 kilos of coffee beans from Havana in Wellington. If I run out before Delivery Day, she can tide me through. Once again I send thanks to the universe for the fate which brought me to this friendly small town in my old age.

There is still some anxiety about fruit and veg, both a big part of my diet. The oranges are almost finished for the season and I often eat at least two a day, but I pick the rest and mentally ration them. There are greens in the garden, scant but enough, root vegetables in the cupboard and most of a bag of frozen edamame beans, bought one day on a whim. That night I make a stir fry with noodles and homemade sweet chili sauce. It is too late to take a photo when I decide that this will be a project, to create something from the random dry goods and the few cans in the cupboard and record it.
The next morning I find an unopened packet of black rice and cook it for breakfast Bali style with coconut cream from the freezer, a dash of maple syrup and feijoas from one of the small jars almost forgotten on a high shelf.   At night I recall a vegan recipe, made once for a gluten-free vegan, though I add some of my precious butter to the polenta this time and serve it for dinner with feijoa chutney. Tonight I intend to make black bean soup to share with my buddy in celebration of my negative test. By then I might just be ready to commit to writing the next part of my memoir, which has been simmering below the surface since the world shrunk and opened.


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Copyright © 2017 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact