This past July in what I now think of as my pandemic journal, I wrote:
Instead of searching for the cause or reason for this (or any) unwelcome experience, I find it more constructive to ask – what can I learn? There is so much to say, and the lessons deepen as we move through this time. The longer we pause, the more we can see with clear vision…
This time out of time has taken so much and taught us so much. The world asks us to learn what endures and what is fragile, what is trivial and what is truly essential. An invisible virus travelling in the air we share, demonstrates how we are all so deeply interconnected, beyond our human ability to comprehend.
2020 ends, but we have yet to answer the central question of our moment — will we let this experience change us collectively for the better? We will begin to ‘live our way into the answer’ in the year to come.
As the year turns, we are still in the midst of being tested. Now, as hope beckons, the wait is even more difficult to bear. Selfishness and exhaustion tempt us to give up. More will die before we get through this.
Yet there is hope. And healing. And light. And love. A new administration is on its way, and Spring, and even a vaccine.
We have reason to believe that in 2021 we will dance and sing together. And if nothing else, 2020 has taught us how precious that will be.
rabbikatiemizrahi 