We are somewhere in the middle of the declared quarantine period. I have lost track or I don't want to think about it in detail anymore, I don't know. What I recall is that Saturday two weeks ago we were on the beach and heard that late in the afternoon the beaches and the paseo maritimo would be closed. The next day we still permitted to leave our homes and we drove around the town to see what the status was. Since then I have not been more than 150 metres from my kitchen. In the grand scheme of things it is not a big deal, and I don't want to sound as if I am complaining. It is new, however, and requires some period of adjustment. My wife and daughter are having fun with it, and I was also until recently. Now I am frustrated. We do consider ourselves lucky. The weather is beautiful, we have an amazing house with various terraces - one of which is on the third floor and views the sea and the mountains - an enclosed patio that I have converted to my office, two balconies and loads of space. We are fine in here, make a fire in the fireplace each evening, eat popcorn and watch movies. On that level, this will likely be a period of life that we fondly remember for a long time.
On the other side of the world, my father is leaving this life. Whether he is doing so quickly or slowly, is a matter of perspective. The stroke happened December 2018, followed by a month in neurologic intensive care, during which we had no idea what would happen, and then a month in rehabilitation. He came out of it surprisingly well with weakness but no permanent damage. Over the course of the following 14 months I visited six times, spending a combined three months there. We had good times, going to the desert to see wild horses, for picnics, on a road trip to Palm Springs and boating on a lake for my 51st birthday. After a month of intensive care and a month of rehab, to live those sort of events again is like a gift from the universe. We all looked at it like that and really enjoyed those time. Now it seems that it is nearing the end. I would like to travel there again, but I cannot leave the quarantine and even if I could, I could not leave my family alone. The fact that we did spend these fun moments together is solace to me. 
Living this end of life phase through him caused me to think a lot about my own situation. There are not that many years left for me. In an even worse situation, one might think that maybe there are not that many healthy years left. Living this caused me to start thinking differently. Since connecting with Buddhism at around the age of 40 I have been much more awake and clearly was not walking around in a cloud. On some occasions more and some occasions less, I have been quite in touch with life and being mindful of the moment. So I am not coming out of the type of blindness I was in for the first 30 years of my life, I was already mildly illuminated, but now am touching more the fact of worldly limitations. As a result I started changing some habits - drinking less, waking earlier, planning the last few life goals that I want to achieve. That has been good for me and good for my family. Drinking less and waking early in the mornings gives me more time and a less cloudy mind. The few things that I still want to achieve require time and mind and, as a result, I am moving closer to those things. 
Being locked down for a month is accelerating my thoughts. Maybe we will never return to the (overly) free lifestyle that we have been living since the explosion of globalisation 25 years ago. This is a topic I will go into later - the possible consequences of this virus and the subsequent restrictions - and if so, then it is another reason to live today, and when this virus is past, in an even more consequent manner.
This morning I walked around our urbanisation and even dared to walk outside the main gate and sit on a wall in the sun. Funny, just standing outside the gate, looking down the street at the sea gave an amazing feeling of freedom. Freedom to do what one wants, freedom to live, freedom to not yet be at the end of this life, freedom to undertake the few (or many) possibilities that are still ahead. 
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