Thoughts on the Corona Virus or 2 Insights on Loneliness and Intuition

Some thoughts on Guernsey, Corona and fate after I heard that the disease had also reached there (there are currently two confirmed patients there).

Often a person understands the true consequences of their decisions years after the decisions themselves were made. Moving to Guernsey and my decision to return to Israel are a prime example of this.

I remember in October 2015 when I received the offer to move to Guernsey, something deep in my gut told me that it was the right thing to do. The ease with which I made the decision and implemented it really surprised me, as I am not a person who likes change or adventure. It really felt like some kind of higher power intervened in my favor and made the transition smooth and easy.

The same thing happened when I decided to return to Israel in late 2019. Again, that deep gut feeling that told me it was time to return, even though I definitely had other plans. However, as soon as I decided to go with my gut feeling (and also with my heart, as you can read in the article Year 2019) Suddenly everything started to work out and I returned to Israel quickly and easily.

Staying in Guernsey taught me how to deal with the coronavirus

So how does all this relate to the coronavirus pandemic that is raging around the world?

If there’s one thing I learned in Guernsey, it’s to deal with loneliness and live on my mother’s doorstep. True, I had amazing hosts there and I traveled around the island with them, but they lived in Spain for a lot of the time and I was left alone on many weekends. So after traveling and exploring the island on foot, I found myself secluding myself at home on the weekends and working on my blog.

Blogging and the connection it created between me and a community of anonymous Francophiles (some of whom I later got to know physically and thus became non-anonymous Francophiles) really saved me. Without the blog, I would have had no chance of surviving on this island. However, this isolation came at a price that I slowly felt.

From a very social person who loves being outside, traveling, and being with people, I became a reclusive person whose only interest is coming home after work and writing another article about Paris or redesigning the website for the hundredth time (there's no doubt that website design is one of my guilty pleasures).

When I realized where this was leading, I was terrified. I wanted to go back to being the social, curious person I once was, not some monk sitting in his little cell writing an endless book. That's why I decided to move to Malta, where I believed I would have more social opportunities that would allow me to break out of the shell I had built for myself.

What I discovered in Malta is that the scar of loneliness and isolation doesn't disappear so quickly, and even though I tried to travel as much as possible, like Arik Einstein, I found that I "like being at home."

Of course, I didn't give in to all of this and continued throughout 2019. Travel in France With all kinds of people and I'm glad that I've slowly started to come back to myself and become a more social person.

So how does all this relate to Corona?

About a week ago, my dad went to Boston to visit a sick uncle, which means that next week when he returns we will all have to go into 14-day quarantine (since I returned to Israel I have been living with my parents while looking for an apartment in the center of the country). Fortunately, living in Guernsey has taught me very well how to deal with quarantine and as you have seen, we have even become a kind of (very close) friends.

And this brings me back to that October 2015 when I made the decision to move to Guernsey. Did fate send me to Guernsey to prepare for the loneliness of the Corona? And in general, can things that seem negative to us in real time (loneliness and homesickness) in a certain constellation become positive?

Philosophical questions that are not easy to answer, but I would be very happy to hear your opinion.

In praise of intuition

And speaking of the intuition that told me to move to Guernsey, here's another story that can explain to all of us why we must listen to our gut feelings.

As mentioned, after I left the Malta I found myself at a crossroads. Working on the blog made me realize how much I love writing and sharing my knowledge with others. Add to that the fantasy that every self-respecting Francophile has of living in Paris, even for a certain period of time. So it's no surprise that during those months when I wasn't in Malta but wasn't in Israel either, I started seriously thinking about moving to Paris and making a living from the blog and the tours I would take.

I had already started looking into the possibility of a work visa and was even interested in the rental market in the City of Lights, but then something stopped me. The official “excuse” was a romantic relationship that was starting to develop in Israel and made me want to give it a chance. However, looking back, what really made me come back was a very deep gut feeling that I couldn’t explain to myself in real time that moving to Paris at this time wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

And truly, when I decided to go with my gut feeling, things suddenly started to work out very quickly. The sense of peace that is lost in a person who is at a serious crossroads returned to me, and the work issue also quickly worked out for me when I received an offer to return to work at my previous company, this time from Israel. However, I only recently understood the significance of this decision.

What would have happened if I had moved to Paris? In these days of Corona, I would have had no one to travel with, and I wouldn't have been able to make a living from my blog because no one would order now. Hotel in France Or a ticket to some Attraction in ParisOn the other hand, I actually returned to Israel, securing myself financially (tap, tap, tap) and also the survival of my blog. In short, the moral here is that we need to listen carefully to our gut feeling, right?

And speaking of the difficulties in Paris…   

It is no secret that the coronavirus has dealt a very hard blow to all those involved in tourism, for some businesses it could be a death blow. Those who have been hit hardest of all are the tour guides who in one second lost their jobs. Therefore, allow me to take this opportunity to ask anyone who is still traveling to France despite everything or who is currently living there to invest a little time and money and take a guided tour with one or more of the Israeli guides who are there. You will gain not only an extraordinary experience and a deep acquaintance with the secrets of the place you will be traveling to, but you will also do a good deed in these difficult times.

So if you decide to accept my request and are looking for recommended guides, you can find them in the following articles:

• The Complete Guide to Tour Guides in Paris – Here you will find the best Hebrew-speaking tour guides in Paris.
• Fall in love with Bordeaux: Guided tours with Yona Mitrani-Mazor – Yona is a wonderful guide who knows Bordeaux like the back of her hand. She will be very happy to give you both regular and culinary tours.
• What to do in Aix-en-Provence and beyond? Attractions and guided tours – If you happen to be in Provence and looking for things to do in the charming city of Aix-en-Provence, I highly recommend you take Nurit Gaon’s tours. You can read all the reasons why in this article.

So where do we go from here?

I will try to enjoy the freedom I still have before the quarantine and since I work from home most of the time anyway, the quarantine should not affect my daily routine. It is possible that in the short term the Corona virus will have a slight impact on the blog because it seems absurd to me at this time to continue writing about tourism in France (after all, who would look for it now? Hotel in Strasbourg or attractions inLoire valley?).

But don't worry, it doesn't mean I'll stop writing, quite the opposite. I'll just get back to engaging more with French culture and especially its history. I have a few ideas in mind and now maybe it's time to put them into practice.

And you, take good care of yourselves and I hope that soon all this will pass and we can meet again somewhere in France...