Lockdown Diaries Nominee#12- A Personal journey of finding beauty and order in Chaos By Hillary Simpson

Speed! Speed! Speed! When people ask me to describe my life, I often think of speed. I imagine my life as a fast track race, and all I do every day is accelerating with an intense speed approaching the finish line. For a goal-driven person, this sounds like the ideal lifestyle. Constantly in denial of the fact that sometimes, playing the tortoise character in the classic ‘Tortoise and the Hare’ tale has its benefits. During the lockdown, a funny moment of reflection prompted me to realise that, life had finally found a remedy for my pertinacity. This lockdown period has been a journey of finding beauty in life, even when bells of chaos were constantly ringing, and life felt like a cataclysmic tale. Let’s explore my story together!

I want you to imagine a black and beige coloured butterfly with stripes of bright orange running down the middle of the other two colours. She was different from most of the butterflies I had seen in my life. She was unique with very distinct zebra-like patterns on her wings. She is called Flutter. With no intention to exaggerate, Flutter’s wings represented the most oxymoronic relationship between chaos and order. A splash of chaotic colours that blend brilliantly to create such beautiful wings. I appreciate Flutter for giving me this moment of bliss to learn to love my uniqueness. Due to simply slowing down to notice nature, a butterfly taught me to love myself.

I have dedicated a significant amount of time to bonding with my nephews and niece. Adults truly have a lot to learn from the way children perceive the world. They notice every flower, every insect, every bird, and they dance happily with no worrisome thoughts. At age 22, I am proud to say that I have mastered the “Tooty Ta” dance routine. It seemed silly at first, but I can happily pronounce that I have discovered a new self-care routine. I am now ready to receive my ‘aunty of the year’ award.

I slowed down to notice beyond the smiles of my closest friends. We all worry about the future but sometimes, we forget that our friends need a helping hand. I took initiative to create a community that focuses on personal excellence, mental stability, and upward social mobility. I am the founder of the Personal Excellence Enthusiasts (PEXEN) community. During the lockdown chaos, I saw beauty in a new community of aspiring individuals who want to reach greater heights without compromising happiness for it.

Above all, this lockdown period has been a journey of melodic bliss. In 2014, I didn’t understand my music teacher when she taught about musical texture. I do now! I got the opportunity to say hello to an old friend, my beautiful piano named after my first dog, Zigi. I always loved spending time playing the piano but this time, it was a different feeling. I have slowed down to find beauty in the sound that each note emits. I hope Zigi would agree with me that this lockdown period has encouraged me to leave my comfort zone. I have always focused on monophonic textures with single melodic lines. I have, however, used this isolation period to dive deep into Polyphonic musical textures made up of waves of different melodies. It is pure bliss to be able to slow down and connect emotionally with music; almost like my personal Shangri-La. Zigi the piano, has gifted me with melodies that will resonate with my heart even after the pandemic ends.

ReachIvy.com organized an online blog/vlog competition to provide people the unique opportunity to share their lockdown stories using their creativity. The competition met with a fantastic response from participants across 4 continents, and our jury has handpicked the Top 50 entries from them for the Popular Choice Award 2020!

The above entry has been submitted by Hillary Simpson from London,UK, who is also the winner of the Jury Award 2020. She is a 22 year old student of the University of Warwick. Kudos to Hillary for this beautiful piece!

Show your support and help Hillary win the contest by liking this blog post on all ReachIvy.com’s social media platforms!