It was noon and I hadn’t even brushed my hair yet. The rush to stock groceries, prescriptions, and other preparations for a county-wide shelter-in-place order, sapped the energy right out of me.
Day 1 of extreme “Social Distancing” was pretty hard. I am a very social person. I was not only worried about the Covid-19 virus, but I was also anxious about how I was going to deal with three weeks of isolation. I was troubled most of the day.
Then Rob Appell sent me an email. “Let’s video chat.”
“Ummm, tomorrow good?” I responded, pulling my fingers through my uncombed hair. We had exchanged emails last week. We were going to talk about Color Psychology. Lisa had designed a brilliant quilt project and Rob was all over it. Rob had said it was exactly what he needed.
Color Psychology you ask? Yep. The Psychology of Color has been around for a very long time, but in our modern culture, it is the secret of marketing and politicians to appeal to people’s emotions. You see, color can help us and it can help us a lot. We told Rob about Green.
Green relaxes us mentally as well as physically and helps alleviate anxiety. Green supports and stimulates health, new growth, generosity, and fertility.
Where I had only talked about green, Rob physically dove into his green stash and swam to a much healthier place than where I was at. Therefore, he was ready for Day 1 and I was still in my pajamas.
To prepare for our video chat, I began to pull out all my green. Green stash, ahh, green projects, hmm, and completed green quilts. *Sigh*. I had only stroked the green pile and I was already feeling better and able to cope. Visualize walking through a fresh green meadow, the woods and forest dancing in a gentle breeze. Exhale. Feeling a bit less anxious? That is the feeling of green.
Today I really enjoyed our three-way video chat between Rob, Lisa and I. We laughed a lot. Rob is so cool and positive. I’ve been physically alone all day in my sewing studio, yet I have felt so connected to our quilting community. I am really grateful for modern electronics that keep us linked together, arm in arm. I can do this. Remember, we’re in this together. Let’s stay connected. Visit your green fabrics. I suspect it will soothe your frayed edges as it did mine.
Lora Zmak
Material Girlfriends
Definition: A shelter-in-place order is when, during an extreme public health emergency, residents of a specific city or region are asked to stay indoors in their homes or other safe spaces. Though the rules on this vary depending on the region, mandates often require everything just short of a complete lockdown with exceptions to go out for medicine or food. Contra Costa County was one of 6 counties that issued the Shelter-in-place order which will last 3 weeks, until April 7.
