Two years ago my love, Kevin, built me a shed—for art, rest, and the occasional 2-hour long phone conversation with a girlfriend. I didn’t use it enough, despite the opportunity. Then in March 2020, the Coronavirus swept in and took over. The shed has since become my home office. Now I spend 5 days a week in it, working remotely full-time for a national lab. At around 8:00 a.m. I walk the 20 feet she sits from our house to turn on the space heater. I return to the house to make a cup of tea and eat breakfast. Thirty minutes later I walk back to the shed with my laptop in hand and begin my work day.
Having such a pared down existence over these past few weeks has forced me to slow down and notice things. I hear my neighbors play with their kids. I witness the extreme nature of spring in Colorado where one day I’m planting irises in 70 degrees and the next trudging through a foot of snow. I don’t like the constraints of sheltering-in-place but I do like how it has opened up space to notice what’s close by.