As I’m about to embark on a new journey (it’s lockdown day six here in New Zealand, clearly the only journeying is to and from work) deep down the dark shadows of day, where the sun fades away and a twelve hour shift of packing kiwifruit awaits, I can’t help but think back of my time in Toronto. And for some weird reason, that gets me excited.
It’s been four years since I spent time on the night shift side of life, and to this day I wonder how I was able to do it for three months straight. Never fully awake, the heat of day keeping deep sleep at bay. I lived in something that can be best described as a constant dream state.
Kinda like being stuck in a jetlag until days turn to nights and your nights are actually your days because that’s when you must stay awake. Trying to sleep the morning hours away, enjoying at least a bit of your day before you hop on the late night train to work.
This lockdown is playing with the concepts of night and day anyway, since I call my friends, family and lover on the other side of the world when my eyes are getting heavy with sleep and they are making their first morning coffee. All is mixed up these weeks, so might as well roll with it.
I’m reliving all rituals I created in Toronto to try and keep myself sane while l drive to work with the colours of sunset painting the sky, and wrap myself in sleepy blankets as the sun rises. Yoga practices to stretch the nights out of my tired body, writing routines to create structure and find peace of mind, walks around the neighbourhood to remember there is a world outside of quarantine.
I hope you all find little sparks of light in your lockdown time, even if that means sleeping all day and working at night.