My stated mission for starting this blog in June 2010 was to become a tourist in my own town. Being a tourist during a pandemic is tough, but not impossible. Here are my Top 10 takeaways from this past year’s pandemic life!

Reading

I may not have been able to physically travel, but I have been able to travel mentally. The San Antonio Public Library to the rescue! With 30 libraries scattered across San Antonio, borrowing books during the pandemic has been a breeze. Landa Library is my “home” library, so when I use the mySAPL app to place a book on hold, I receive an email telling me that it’s ready to pick up. When I get to the library, I call the number posted outside, and a friendly librarian brings out my books, much like HEB’s curbside service. Bonus: The library has interesting arts and crafts that you may request. I made a colorful felt quilt square during African-American history month that I gave to a neighbor who’s battling cancer. I personally think my tax dollars are well spent at SAPL.

Gardening

Backyard gardening became a favorite pastime for many during the pandemic, myself included. Growing your own vegetables is awesome, with focus on the AWE. Planting seeds and watching food grow is awe-inspiring. I had two wonderful crops of Romaine and curly leaf lettuce that I grew from seeds. (Thank you, Eco Centro, for the free seeds!) I also had a bumper crop of tomatoes, Roma and Celebrity, I grew from plants. Salsa has never tasted so good! I’m growing broccoli for the first time right now, and they look promising. My daughter and I also enjoyed propagating succulents, not for food, but for fun. Shades of Green‘s gorgeous outdoor nursery made shopping for plants a peaceful respite.

Crafting

Having time to be creative during the pandemic has been a real joy. I’ve sewed more than 150 face masks for friends, neighbors and family since last March, helping to keep the worry at bay. Las Colchas, one of my favorite places to soak up creative inspiration, has provided a safe haven for shopping. Their scrap basket has been my go-to for interesting fabrics. Aside from sewing, I’ve also enjoyed making greeting cards and postcards from recycled magazines’s colorful pages, cutting the pages into two-inch squares and triangles to create interesting quilt patterns. Sending snail mail to friends gives me a chance to count my blessings. I also made an intricate cross-stitch for a friend’s birthday present, knowing it would be something she’d cherish.

Volunteering

Community service has always been near and dear to my heart, and the pandemic has given me an opportunity to take volunteering to the next level. (It helps that I retired from teaching at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.) I became the Democratic Party precinct chair for my neighborhood, giving me the chance to meet neighbors who share the same values and concerns that I do. I’ve also donated blood several times, providing those in need a helping hand. I was nervous about going in, but the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center runs a tight ship. I am in and out in less than an hour. Schedule an appointment online at a location nearest to you.

Cooking

Luckily, I married a man who is an outstanding cook. Cooking has never been a strength of mine, but the pandemic has given me the opportunity to at least try. I found a blog post with 25 drool-worthy vegan soup recipes, and I’ve made several of them…all outstanding! Sharing what I’ve made with friends and neighbors has been an added bonus. Our daughter has been cooking up a storm, finding inspiration on TikTok. Her homemade egg noodles make me drool just thinking about them.

De-cluttering

Being cooped up inside our home that we’ve lived in for the past 22 years has given us the opportunity to let go of things we don’t need any more. My daughter and I tackled our arts and crafts supplies, and we donated several big boxes to the Spare Parts Center for Creative Reuse, 13491 Wetmore Road. We also have a Little Free Library in our front yard, so we place books we no longer need in the library for neighbors to enjoy. We haven’t gone full Marie Kondo, but de-cluttering bit by bit has made a difference in our living space.

Walking

Thank goodness for the outdoors. I think that nature has been the real MVP of this pandemic. My husband and I have enjoyed walking in San Antonio’s city parks, and my daughter and I have enjoyed walking in our neighborhood. We’ve even discovered a few new places during the pandemic, like the new Tobin Land Bridge and Comanche Lookout Park. I recently walked with a neighbor through Brackenridge Park. We live three miles from the park, but she’d never taken the time to experience its magic. I think she will now!

Zooming

I was midway through my last semester of teaching when the pandemic hit. We had to place all of our classes online, and we began meeting with our students via Zoom. Not the same as face-to-face classes, but a close second. Thank heavens for the Internet and high-speed connections. Thinking back to my college days, we would have been sunk. I guess we could have mailed assignments back and forth, but Zoom made things a lot easier, as did Canvas, our learning management system. I don’t think remote meetings or working will go away once the pandemic is under control. Being able to meet/work from your home instead of having to drive in has been a blessing. Our air quality is better because of it, and we’ve gained back the commute time. One thing I don’t miss about work is the hour and a half per day that I spent in my car and the stress that went along with it.

Thinking

The past year has given us the time to consider what’s important and what’s not. Not long after the beginning of the pandemic, I saw Kitty O’Meara’s poem, “The People, An Antidote to Global Anxiety and Uncertainty,” on YouTube. It gave me hope, and it still gives me hope. (Speaking of poems and hope, add your stanza to “Dear Vaccine,” the global vaccine poem. Thanks to Naomi Shihab Nye, San Antonio resident and the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate, for the heads up!) Despite the unbearable loss of loved ones, the pandemic has not been all bad. One study found that “the pandemic situation significantly improves air quality in different cities across the world, reduces GHGs emission, lessens water pollution and noise, and reduces the pressure on the tourist destinations, which may assist with the restoration of the ecological system.” Long-term environmental benefits are possible. We just have to choose the sustainable path.

Puttering

I’ve never been good at puttering. I always have mile-long list of things that I’d like to accomplish. The pandemic has changed that. I still have a list, but I also have learned to enjoy watering the plants, filling the bird baths, patting our dogs, brewing and sipping hot tea, pulling weeds, playing board games with my family, watching movies and TV shows, uploading insects to iNaturalist and catching up with friends. I even built a fairy house for our front yard! The pandemic has allowed us to take life in the slow lane, appreciating the beauty in the everyday. I think we’ll look back on this year and be thankful for the reminder to live in the present since tomorrow is uncertain…and to love the ones you’re with.

Denise Barkis Richter, Ph.D., author of “San Antonio’s Passport to Fun,” has been blogging about San Antonio since June of 2010. Follow her at facebook.com/SanAntonioTourist so that you’ll never miss a post. Her love affair with the Alamo City began at Hemisfair in 1968. She moved to San Antonio in 1979 as an 18-year-old college student, and San Antonio has been her home ever since. Denise completed certification to become a professional tour guide in 2019. Please contact her at sanantoniotourist at gmail dot com if you’d like for her to curate a fabulous San Antonio experience for you!