.. if only for a moment or two, and without losing sight of getting through this responsibly.  

How are you doing during this COVID-19 pandemic? Readers know I’ve been tracking and writing about the pandemic’s impact on business continuity and on assistants since the beginning of March, before it was declared a pandemic.

In the next few days, I’ll bring you the results of my second Weekend Poll on the topic, and will bring you more about how you might use some of your time preparing for the day when people are back in your offices.

While I was out walking yesterday, though, it occurred to me that it’s also healthy to – if possible – put a pause on dwelling 24:7 on the challenging circumstances in which we’re living. We in Vancouver are still able to enjoy heading outdoors, while also being encouraged everywhere we turn to maintain distance from one another.

Do-si-do, anyone?

I’ve thought more than a few times that, if someone was to film Vancouverites from above, it would look as though many of us are under the influence. When we see someone approaching, we may veer off the sidewalk onto the roadway – or do a complete about face, or scoot onto someone’s yard in order to avoid one another. Some maneuvers bring to mind high school square dancing lessons and doing the “Do-si-do”, albeit at a distance!

April is a beautiful time of year in Vancouver – and likely in your area, as well. Even as I take long, meandering blossom walks, I realise that many of you prohibited from doing so right now.

Give your mind and spirit a break

Thinking about this made me reflect back to when I launched my YouTube channel, and what I initially thought of as visual “brain breaks”. These are short clips, of nature and of travel – perhaps to your city or country. That’s because, whenever possible when I’m booked to present in other locales, I make time to explore your communities.

You may be giving yourself breaks from all this by exercising to online coaching or instruction, cooking, baking, playing board games, decorating Easter eggs or assembling puzzles to provide relief and a temporary balance to all the COVID-19-related news coming at us. There’s also, of course, music, your tv and social media.

If you’d like to also soak up images of nature or other locales, you’ll find plenty of them on my YouTube channel. It’s easy to access; it’s the last icon you’ll see under the “Stay in touch” heading near the upper right of your screen.

What you’ll see below

Whether you love flowers, the tide coming in, a look at different seasons, or travel, I hope you’ll find something you like to put the pandemic on pause if only for a minute or two. In this post, I’m taking you to Vancouver …  England’s Isabella Plantation … a flight over Barbados … watching New Forest horses emerge from the dusk … to Edinburgh, where a hike up Arthur’s Close offers incredible views … and to painted skies. West coast sunsets don’t always look they do in this video; those beautiful colours were the result of forest fires here in BC.

I don’t always talk through the videos 

I figure that, for the most part, it’s nice to soak up the sounds of birdsong, the tide, and occasionally people (or traffic!) inevitably popping up in the background. 

Birdsong and gorgeous azaleas at Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park, a short Tube ride from London

Barbados from the air

In for the night: New Forest horses at dusk

Edinburgh, Scotland: Holyrood Park and the climb to Arthur’s  Close

Painted Skies: a summer sunset by Spanish Banks in Vancouver, Canada