Pandemic silver linings: isolation spurs creative new projects
CBC
Two years of COVID restrictions have forced many to re-evaluate their lives and change course.
Meet three New Brunswickers who have embraced that extra time at home, and taken on the challenges of isolation by starting new projects.
On a sunny morning in March 2020, Kerry Maher found herself in tears in her living room. The pandemic had closed her Halifax restaurant and, like all of us, she had no idea what the future held.
That's when she heard her mother's voice in her head saying, "Now what?"
Maher could have stayed in her comfy chair with her coffee, but instead she listened to her mom and asked herself, "What makes me feel better?"
"Get up, get dressed, get your workout clothes on. Go outside, grab your weights and just hang out out there with all of that. And so I did."
The problem was Maher didn't want to hang out alone. So she propped up her phone, and hovered her finger over the Facebook live button, wondering if someone else out there might want to work out too.
"I'm like, 'Do I even have any friends? Will anybody say hi to me? I'm so lonely. I miss people,'" she said with a laugh remembering that moment.
Then Maher, who grew up in Bathurst and went to university in Fredericton, said her "negative Nelly voice" kicked in.
"You're too chicken, you're not wearing the right clothes … don't do it. Your ex-boyfriends will see you. You look old now, your high school friends will look at this and they'll say, 'Oh, look at those wrinkles, look how old she looks.'"
Maher says in that moment her heart starting pounding and she knew there was no turning back.
"I said, 'You know what? I haven't been this excited about anything in a month. I'm frickin' pressing the button.' And so I did."
On that first day, Maher, who is a golf pro, led her older sister and an old friend from high school through a few golf stretches and some cardio. At the end, everyone felt great, and they made a plan to do it again the next day at noon.
When the next day rolled around, Maher's enthusiasm had waned, and she told her she wasn't doing it.
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