Stuck at Home With a Pantry Full of Love and Food
By: Alice Toneatto
Tags: Reflections, Family, Life, Self, Love

“Merry Christmas, and don’t eat too much during the holiday’s family meals!” I said joking with a friend at the office before leaving him for the Christmas holiday break.

“That’s all we have left…eat.” He replied.

I felt sad. I love eating, but that sentence cracked my heart.

While going home, I kept thinking about what he said.

All we have left is work and food, and we are lucky to have both.

Around 70,000 people died to date due to Coronavirus in Italy.

I feel blessed to be healthy and safe at home with my parents. The Italian government has decided to adopt stricter rules to prevent the virus’s spread during the holidays and families meeting.

2020, it’s almost over. It’s time for me to take stock of this year and think about 2021.

Since March, my country has been in and out of the quarantine zone.

We closed everything, shut down companies and schools. We thought we were safe in summer, and many of us went on holidays, even abroad, to enjoy fleeting freedom.

After months, after thousands of deaths, some of us still believe it’s all fake; the military trucks that brought coffins out of towns were just a parade to impress and scare the citizens, Covid-19 doesn’t exist, and the ambulances that run around town with sirens and lights on are empty.

I’m pissed because while someone believes the pandemic is all fake, I see TV programs showing patients and hospital staff’s desperate conditions; they are exhausted and hopeless.

In my little world, made of friends, cats, and work, I feel like my life has been paused since everything started.

Rare meeting with friends, no holiday, no planning because the law might change, and I didn’t want to get stuck far from home.

This pandemic situation made me realize how fortunate I am to have a safe home, a decent hospital close by, and food in my pantry. I’m grateful to have the chance to work from home and to collaborate with a small firm where the risk of getting infected is low.

I’m not mad with 2020; I got to know some fantastic people virtually and had the chance to slow down, to understand better what I want to do with my life, and make a plan for the future.

Today, opening the pantry, I’ve realized there is so much food in it that if I move something, everything else falls. I’m receiving wishes from all over the world, people caring about me who want to know how my family and I are doing.

I hold in my heart the hope of a better 2021 where we can enjoy each other’s company without wearing a mask or keeping safety distances.

With a pantry full of love from my family and friends, I wish everybody lots of sunny days filled with the affection of their beloved ones.

Days where no one has to fear losing the people dear to them or their job due to an unknown virus.

I wish you a pantry like mine, full of food because no one deserves an empty stomach, never.

I hope we will wake up one day with no pandemic going on, with a healthier world for us to enjoy.

Photo by Aman Tyagi on Unsplash

Initially a military communication tool, sky lanterns are today a means to entrust hope messages. According to different countries’ traditions, lanterns are flown for good luck in the coming year or during festivals carrying wishes.