What’s Your Pandemic Story?

March 15, 2020, ushered in the end of life as we knew it. March 15, 2021, seemed to arrive just as unceremoniously. We have now “sheltered-in-place” for a full year and we all deserve some attention. As we stand at the threshold of Spring and glimpse re-entry into a life more familiar, it feels complicated. There is no rule book explaining how to exit a pandemic gracefully; or how to exit at all. What we do know is that in any transition, it is important to be mindful; it is important to reflect on all we’ve experienced, lost, gained.

Between March 2020-March 2021, we collectively experienced the following:

  • The onset of a global pandemic
  • Immediate and severe restrictions on our ways of life
  • Loss of physical connection with many, or potentially all of our loved ones
  • Slowing down
  • Adaptability
  • New modes of connection
  • New ways to grieve
  • A racial justice movement
  • A deeply polarized election
  • Conversations we’ve never had before
  • An economic crisis
  • New practices to care for ourselves and each other
  • Chronic uncertainty
  • Valuable time with ourselves and the people we live with
  • Unfamiliar feelings

Now, as society begins to welcome back the familiar, we invite you to consider what narrative are you creating? What characters are you dreaming about? What pain are you suffering and what hope are you expanding into? In this time of renewal, the potential to consciously co-create is abundant. As the earth begins a new year, we invite you to make your own personal list of what was lost and what was gained. Consider what you’d like to release into the past and what you’d like to integrate into the future. We can’t choose what life brings us, but we can choose how we carry our stories. This Spring, take some time to write your personal “pandemic story”.