The Day Control Was Taken From Us

What It Covers

Ryan Holiday marks the six-year anniversary of COVID-19 by speaking with British author Chloe Dalton about her memoir *Raising Hare*, exploring how the pandemic forced a radical slowdown, reconnection with nature, and rediscovery of what constitutes a meaningful life rooted in place and presence.

Key Questions Answered

• •Forced disruption as reset: When external circumstances eliminate the option to maintain existing habits, change happens faster and more completely than any self-directed improvement plan. Dalton, a decade-long UK political adviser, discovered an entirely different relationship with time, nature, and creativity only because the pandemic removed every alternative. Voluntary change rarely matches the depth of involuntary transformation.
• •Sustained presence reveals natural cycles: Living continuously in one location for an extended period — rather than moving in and out via travel — exposes seasonal patterns invisible to urban or mobile lifestyles. Dalton observed a full year of countryside seasons for the first time, including winter's role in renewal, reframing what had previously felt like a period to endure as a necessary phase of restoration.
• •Narrowing attention reduces anxiety: Focusing sustained attention on a single subject — in Dalton's case, monitoring a wild hare's minute behavioral signals — produces measurable physiological calm: slower pulse, steadier heart rate, reduced mental noise. This functions as an unintentional mindfulness practice accessible without formal meditation training, achievable by directing deep attention toward any living creature or natural environment.
• •Wilderness years carry hidden value: Holiday draws a parallel to Churchill's decade of political exile, during which painting and reading appeared unproductive but built reserves for later demands. Periods that look like career stagnation from the outside can function as restoration for sustained future effort. Resisting the urge to fill every lull with productivity-signaling activity preserves energy for what follows.
• •Urban success narratives obscure rooted living: Cultural frameworks in politics, journalism, and media equate success with geographic mobility, global exposure, and career acceleration. Dalton argues this conditioning causes people to undervalue place-based living, lasting community relationships, and ecological connection — resources that demonstrably support psychological stability and creative output, as her own book's origin and reception confirm.