Every evening over the last four weeks, my wife, my daughter, and I have taken long walks in and around our new town of Buch. It is the first time since we arrived in September 2019 that we have begun to feel like a part of this storied community.

All this has been due to the Coronavirus lockdown. While we started to walk every evening as a form of exercise to chase away the overwhelming confinement, it has since become an opportunity to discover new places in this community that we might never have seen.

There’s a way that active daily living denies people from stopping and smelling the cool, fresh air. When you are chasing the bus and the trains daily to get to work, it is difficult to take time out to see nature and walk the grassy knolls that hide the wild rabbits and antelopes that live around us.

The month of April was incredibly productive for our journey of discovery in Buch. We took long walks to Karow, Zepernick, Schwanebeck, Panketal, and Polnitzweg. We walked along the banks of the Panke River and discovered the old rail tracks that once traversed this town. We walked on the famous hospital grounds that have made the city a healthcare haven for many decades. We walked the bush paths and encountered some wild animals that are trying to make sense of the reduced human expansion over the last few weeks as the human race contemplates our general existence.

Since we came to Buch, it is now that we are finally feeling like a part of the community. We are finding the nooks and crannies and going back home to google the history of ancient buildings and parks. As we learn more about the town, we find ourselves. We are making sense of where we belong and how to deal with the dissonance.

The world, as we knew it, will never be the same again. Understanding the times we live in involves knowing the past of where we call home. In that way, the Coronavirus has helped us find an anchor that is important in this period. As we discover more about this town, we find a way to keep ourselves sane and healthy.