Two months ago the world essentially ground to a halt. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the world and shut everything down. My wife and I were significantly impacted as we both are high school teachers. Literally, overnight we had to transition from working with our students face-to-face to online instruction. Thursday was a regular school day, but Friday's workday turned into a remote learning planning day, and the following Monday we were off and running. I almost feel bad for saying this, but while it’s been somewhat stressful, the coronavirus has been possibly one of the best things for my creative life.

After the school shut down, things changed. Everything slowed down, and school wasn't as chaotic for me. Sure, there was still some stress, but I was actually able to be more productive and do more for my students because I wasn't being pulled in so many different directions each day. That, in turn, left me some more time on my hands because I wasn't having to do as much work in the evenings.

I started to take advantage of the time that I had to dive into creative endeavors. I've been going on walks almost daily, dictating new blog entries, working on ideas for the second book of my fantasy series, and even drafting some chapters for a nonfiction book.

I got back in the drawing again. I purchased a Udemy course that I found on sale (check out my blog about it), and I've been working on improving my drawing craft. I hope to have some character sketches and images to share here as I continue working on novels. I've even been developing some ideas for podcasts that I want to do.

All that is say, it's remarkable to look at what can sometimes happen when you slow down. I do understand that there are negative sides to this pandemic. People are sick, others are losing jobs, and businesses are suffering. The economy is going to take some time to rebuild from this, but I’ve also seen good things coming out of it. Families are drawing closer together and spending more quality time with each other. People are diving into creativity with extra time on their hands.

This goes to show that even in difficult times, good things can still come out of them. A lot of times it's a matter of perspective.