Wine and Wellness

By Shelly Waldron

With the Fourth of July holiday officially behind us, we have made it through the half-way mark of this crazy year 2020. These days being safe, staying healthy and wellness has become front and center for most of us.
I will admit the first few weeks when the Covid19 pandemic first arrived, I was mostly in a phase of denial of what was happening, thinking it wouldn’t last and things would go back to “normal” soon. Now, as we head into the fifth month of the coronavirus, I now have a better idea that this new way of life will be around for a bit longer than first expected.
With all my past activities outside the home shut down or closed, I’ve had to find a way to create a new life at home. It cannot be all about watching the Real Housewives, eating Bon Bons on the couch and happy hour starting at 3 pm, now can it? Wellness or self-care can look different for each person. For me, I decided to take this unforeseen free time that was given to me and make it worthwhile. Maybe it could be viewed as an opportunity to do something new, something I have not done before. So, I decided to delve into things that interest me, do the things I have always wanted to do, but “never had the time” excuse attached to them. My new life of wellness looks like this: guitar lessons, Spanish lessons, yoga and mindful meditation classes, and for the wine loving girl in me, some incredible Zoom wine events. All these happening on my laptop at home, what a concept! It has been incredible how my calendar went from everything cancelled and nothing to do, to a full week, every week, with these new activities.
The online wine events I have attended have been offered directly from wine makers, like Justin Winery in Central California, Spanish and French wine courses through Spain’s Devour Tours via Facebook Live direct from Europe. By happenstance, one day I stopped into a local wine shop, Wildside Wine, off 6th Avenue in Tacoma, to look for some different varietals of wine and found they too were offering virtual wine classes. I have attended two of these events, one with a Washington wine maker offering four wines and the other tasting highlighted Spain and Portugal wines and a vermouth. I have signed up for two more upcoming tastings this month with Wildside Wine. Both will be focusing on Italian wine which have include food pairing suggestions and recipes straight from an Italian kitchen. All of these have been so informative and fun. I look forward to each one. Seems strange instead of my traditional summertime outdoor concerts, street fairs and festivals to have these online events taking their place,
but that is summer 2020.
The interesting and pleasant side note to all of this, even though these activities have been held
virtually, I actually found I have become a part of an online community and met plenty of new
interesting people, built relationships, made new friends and I am enjoying every minute of it. A whole new lifestyle has emerged for me from Covid19. Of course, I prefer in person activities, but I found that I can also enjoy this new way of living for the time being. Make lemonade out of lemons as they say. I decided I can make it for a while longer until things are safe enough that we may once again gather in groups. Wellness across miles connected by a computer camera and microphone, once seemed so “why do it” but now, the miles are insignificant, the connection to another smiling friend, sharing similar interests, topics and fun is very fulfilling. Instead of being in isolation, we can weather the storm of this pandemic together, online. Thank goodness our computer age is where it is currently, because now my laptop is my lifeline to wellness. Speaking of wellness, add wine to your online experiences, I promise it will make you smile! Wine like food, is healthy in moderation. My hope is for a soon return to what we knew and loved. In the meantime, stay safe, enjoy wine, and wellness on your terms, anyway you can.
Cheers!