Well, it’s been a weird past week. It stared with a super full moon, the end of Mercury Retrograde, and a time change. Along with rising fear, paranoia, and a shortage of beans, rice, and…. toilet paper! (Maybe because of all the beans? 🤔)

As an introvert, who works from home, with primary hobbies of reading and writing, the current Coronavirus situation hasn’t impacted me too much as of yet, but the vibe of unease is strong, and as an empath I’m certainly pulling it all in.

Self-care is a must right now! Meditation and walks outside are helping to keep me grounded. I’ve had to limit social media use and really all electronics that connect to the outside world. The energy of panic has filtered through my nervous system.

When the imaginary feels real.

As the energy shifted this past week, I was reading a book called Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. It’s a long read at over 700 pages, but I devoured the first half of it during my last Saturday reading binge, up until the point where it turned like… WTF?

The town in the book starts freaking out, as this strange virus starts spreading, propelled by outside forces or perhaps “imaginary friends”, as the book’s protagonist, Christopher, is a kid.

I loved the Stephen King vibes that came through (maybe it’s the name? 🤔) with the gifted child and connection to the “imaginary world”, or other realm. It felt like Chbosky got what’s it like to be sensitive, telepathic, or perhaps on the edge of schizophrenic, which could arguably come from one who is super sensitive and picking up messages from the other realm.

The second half of the book, however, got weird and weirder, especially as I progressed through the weird and weirder week.

Being one who questions all, with distrust of the media and government, I think I discounted the current Coronavirus situation at first, but it felt like things ramped up quickly over the past week, as major entertainment events, schools and restaurants shut down.

Grocery stores have been raided with canned food hoarded like its end of days, virus-apocalypse movies all coming to life…. what if? Well, maybe it is real.

Cautious. Suspicious. Aware. Overwhelmed. Pulling back and distracting with my imaginary friend(s).

Unfortunately, I lost interest in the last 100 pages or so of Imaginary Friend. The climax was looooong and kind of repetitive and well… the biblical stuff and the ending… it didn’t work for me. Really? Seriously. WTF.

Was it worth the read? I suppose. But it will be remembered for me as a long 700-page escape in a week where that was much needed, coming to a terrible ending.

Creating my own imaginary world.

The good news? As I buckled down to spend even more time inside at home, I’m ready to create my own imaginary world and newest book.

I paused a few months back to gain structure. I decided to switch from being a flaring pantser to a plotter and the book Save the Cat! Writes a Novel really helped me find the foundation.

I’ve got my scenes laid out on index cards, with guideposts along the way, if I get lost. I’m ready to go! Now my goal is to get my taxes done, then clear up focus in April for Camp NaNoWriMo and GO!

I’ll be creating a new magical world, as the one around shuts down, pulling creativity and inspiration from my heart space in a time calling for heart space healing.

The virus that strikes this space is forcing all within to rest, to pause, without distractions, to come together, to express, to create, to love.

For in the darkness, there is always light.

How are things in your part of the world? What are you reading? Writing? Creating? Please share in the comments below.

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