It isn’t until your future is deferred that you realize how much energy you spend thinking about and planning for things to come. Every day we hear reports of concerning statistics and tragic stories as the experts throw us a crum of hope that this may only last a few more weeks, a few more months. And with each day, hundreds of thousands of dreamers are robbed of this little shred of hope as they have to cancel weddings, post-pone moves, or pause their education while they recalibrate in these uncertain times. For some of us, this has been but a disruption to our normal routine, a chance to step back from the relentless pressure of modern, city living. We are the lucky ones.
Today marks the beginning of an important test for a lot of people as we sit down to empty Passover tables and cut our Easter cookie recipes in half to feed the fraction of family members we will celebrate with this year. Breaking the fast for Ramadan will look much different when we can’t come together at the end of the day. I find it particularly sad because in my family these holidays represent the few times that we get together and when the simple prospect of missing an Easter dinner means we lose so much, it makes me wonder why we wait for these occasions to show love to the people we care about. As I cross off events on my calendar further ahead in the future, I feel so sad to be losing something that hasn’t happened yet when the people that I would be enjoying those moments with are here right now. So where do we look when we can’t look ahead? How do we focus all of that energy and intention on the present and find new ways of what it means to stay connected?
While we were away 