blog takeover + reflection

featuring erika roberts, ghc creative strategist

Erika Roberts is a creative force. With words written and spoken, she brings power to her art using her strongest tools: language and love. In this new blog takeover series, Erika not only gives us a look into what it’s like to be a collaborator forced to work from a distance during a global pandemic, but she’ll also introduce the GHC team through the lens of the shutdown later in the series.

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Welcome back….

I hope that you took sometime this week to breathe. With all of the things happening in our world that are trying to choke the life out of us, it is important for us to take care of ourselves. 

It wasn’t that long ago that the (lungs of the Earth) Rain Forest was on fire. We watched that on social media and we became concerned.

During the first months of the quarantine we learned that the Coronavirus attacks the lungs making it hard to breathe.  We watched in real time the spread of this virus. We watched the death rate rise. 

We watch our government argue and give out confusing information. 

These things have played a huge role in our sanity. It was amidst these things that some of us just broke down. Isolation  with the loss of income and loss of life is mentally dangerous. Recognizing that is a part of that battle. 

I became depressed. I wanted out of this house. I wanted to see my creative friends.  I wanted to sit and sip on a turmeric latte (extra cayenne) from Together Cafe. I wanted to see my people. I was having a very hard time adjusting to working from home. Everything around mE became a major distraction. 

 I had to rework and strategize my time more effectively. It was hard. I had to really be intentional with my self care practice. I had to reevaluate what that term even meant. I had to begin taking care of myself.

Somewhere  in the midst of getting on phone calls, and Zooms I could see the skeleton of a schedule emerging. It was important for mE to have space and time to create. 

Many more projects came on board taking up more days. I was beginning to work from home and I was nervous. My jobs had contracts that I needed to sign. I had to buy a printer/scanner. I bought some nice headphones with a microphone attached. I looked ready. 

I had all of the supplies to begin my job from home.  I still wasn’t sure how to do that yet. 

I deliberately decided NOT to do any work on Mondays. On those days I would take care of mE. 

Take time for  yourself. 

Please know that it is easier said (written and read)  than done. Taking care of yourself is NOT a selfish act. It is essential to mental health. 

Our Tuesday huddle meetings became more important than I could have imagined. We talked about work but we also talked about life as well.  It felt good to be able to share real life things. We all agreed that we weren’t ok. 

Normally I could hide my feelings but not now. I needed to share. I had to share. 

My artistic language cried out for an outlet. 

I needed to know that I wasn’t alone here. 

Were other artists searching for a release? 

I began writing. Once I turned that faucet on there was no stopping it. 

 

At this point, the quarantine had us on a major pause and we are still waiting for life to hit play. It is in this “timeout” that we begin to see things that would have been looked over because of busying distractions.  One could say that this shutdown had a purpose. 

We all needed to pause.

Thank you, yet again for taking the moment to share my thoughts. 

Meet mE here next week..my words will be ready

~E