Challenging times inspire creative solutions

It’s been 1,728 hours — 72 days — since Nevadans were first asked to work from home and begin isolating themselves from others to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

To say that it has been challenging would be a gross understatement.

But we are creative people and have found ways to keep busy, stay in touch with family, friends and co-workers and celebrate special occasions.

Car parades, such as last Thursday’s event for Boulder City High School’s Class of 2020, have become popular to help mark birthdays and graduations.

Porches have become a place to take portraits of our time in quarantine or drop off surprise packages to let someone know they are being thought of.

Video conversations and conferencing have become a new way to visit and stay in contact with each other. Next week my husband and I are planning to have dinner with our son and daughter-in-law in Illinois via video.

Our time at home also has given us the opportunity to do things and tackle projects we always found ourselves too busy to do.

There was plenty of time to binge watch television shows. Gourmet cooking and baking became favorite pastimes. I baked a lot. My freezer is filled with loaves of banana bread.

Not only did I plant a garden — which is now producing luscious tomatoes and squash — I was able to pull weeds, plant and tend to flowers and build netted structures to protect my fruit trees from birds.

My husband and I were also able to clean out and organize the garage. There were boxes in there we haven’t touched since we moved into our current home, and some that haven’t been opened in nearly 20 years.

We went through dozens of boxes that brought back memories as we traveled back in time. We found plenty of things to donate or get rid of, as well as things that have been missing for years. I found things that used to be on my desk at work that I haven’t seen since 2001.

I was even happier to find both halves of the containers I like to use during the holidays to store cookies. I had unpacked the tops years ago when we moved into our current home but had no idea where the bottoms were. That’s what happens when you reuse boxes and don’t take the time to properly relabel them.

I’m still holding out hope that somewhere in the few boxes we haven’t gone through yet I will find a piece of art that I have been looking for.

We still have a couple of weeks — at least — until we can retire our home offices or return to workplaces that have been closed. Community activities and sports will resume and that’s when our calendars fill up again with too much to do.

Maybe, though, our hours, days and weeks at home will continue to inspire us to reach out to others, be more thoughtful in our actions and make time to do the things we want to do instead of what we have to do or think we have to do.

I think we are up to that challenge.

Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.