World’s greatest experts in thriving while confined

Thanks Marco Chilese on Unsplash

Day 11 of self-quarantine after returning from Thailand. 

In the same four walls.  Basically 24 hours a day.  (I’ve gone on a few late-night walks with no contact with people.)  My partner Pete has had to describe the scene in grocery stores as I have not yet seen it.

These conditions of confinement feel oddly familiar.  Not that I’ve been confined for longer than 16 hours in an economy seat.  But, in the past 4.5 years, I’ve spent between 10 and 20 hours a week in prison.

Those prison residents know confinement.

Know being locked up.

Know not being able to move as they please.

Know being told when and how to do just about everything.

Know sharing a 6’x8’ space with another human being.

Know being far from family in times of joy…and time of deep sorrow.

Know needing to get creative to eat because there’s nothing good available.

Know becoming resourceful to answer to their needs.

And most importantly, prison residents

Know how to transform their confinement into a great gift.

Let’s be clear, they would all prefer to be walk free beyond those gates.  And yet … many of them attribute prison for saving their lives, for teaching them another way of life they did not even know existed.

Does your safe-at-home feel like incarceration or an invitation?

While you may not have a choice to being locked up, you have a choice about how you feel about it and what you do with it.

So, here’s my invitation.  Come learn from those we’ve so often outcast as evil, inhumane, even monsters – who also happen to be the world’s greatest experts in thriving while confined.  For the month of April, I will share a daily thought, reflecting a lesson learned from our prison residents that has enlightened me and has the potential to provide you with this same gift.

What do you want to learn?

This is part of a series. You see, on March 30th, I realized that I have a unique perspective into confinement thanks to my past 4.5 years engaging several times a week with the world's leading experts on confinement: prison residents. For the month of April, I will provide a daily lesson learned in prison that will hopefully help us to survive and even thrive while confined to our homes. Go forward and back to enjoy each daily lesson.