There’s only a week left of winter, officially anyway. Here in New England, it’s that in-between time when one second it’s breezy and warm, and the next it’s snowing. Today, was frigid. I think my face froze when I filled my gas tank, but the promise of spring is in the air. The world is awakening - full of promise and new growth and sunshine.

This time last year, regardless of the actual date on the calendar, we entered what felt like a winter of the soul. Fear was already in the air. Sickness crept across the globe, and we didn’t know what that meant for ourselves, our families, or for the human race.

Here we are, almost exactly a year later, and the world is slowly opening back up. In some ways it feels like a lifetime has passed, and in other ways it feels like lost time, like we are awakening from a prolonged pause. I’m more than ready to return to many of the things I missed last year. I can’t wait to be with the people we haven’t seen, including two of my kids. I’m eager to attend book events and live conferences. I’m ready for the freedom of travel. But, I also don’t want to forget some of the unintentional lessons we learned from ‘COVID season’. We took to heart the idea of living simply. We enjoyed time with our family and friends close to home. We thought carefully about how and where we wanted to use our time and resources. We found new ways to care for each other.

In my yoga class today (yes, yoga is in the studio now, not virtually in the basement) the instructor invited us to ‘be in creation.’ While she was talking about the physical poses we were creating with our bodies, on the drive home, I thought about the phrase on a larger scale. We all have an opportunity to thoughtfully and intentionally ‘be in creation’ as we re-enter the world.

“The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.” - John Schaar