Last Saturday night, from a window view, we watched as fireworks sent their colors and sparks over the Middlebury College campus. The students returned several weeks ago after three months away, and now, they are mostly out of the COVID woods having quarantined and been tested repeatedly. They are back in classes in person. Still masked and distanced, but they are back. The fireworks marked the 365 days that have passed since they were all sent home and the campus closed March on 13th, 2020.

And so it goes for all of us. Most of us are reflecting on a whole year of loss, grief, restriction, racial injustice, climate crisis, and political unrest and division. I realize, that in spite of so much loss, I feel so much more grateful for just about everything than I did a year ago. I realize how fortunate I am. We have enough to eat, we have a warm house, we have space, we have ways to live that nurture us and that help others. This is not true for many people.

From Principia Early Learning Center, St. Louis, MO

We have been so impressed with the adaptability, resourcefulness, and resilience of teachers. Those with whom we work at Principia School in St. Louis, those who teach our grandchildren at Lincoln School in Brookline, MA, those who are in our family, those who are our friends and neighbors, those who continue to show up for professional development that will help them do a better job…really all teachers everywhere. They are indeed essential, tireless workers who make all the difference in our children’s lives.

We believe that no matter our circumstance, it is probably worth our while to reflect on what we may have learned and appreciated from all this time at home.

I have seen several articles with questions that prompt such reflection. Like these questions included in a recent newsletter.
Pandemic Pondering

1. What is something you did before the pandemic that you are looking forward to doing again?

2. What is something you started to do during the pandemic that you hope to continue?

3. What is something you did before the pandemic that you want to let go of?

4. What is something you started to do during the pandemic that you will be happy to stop?

Early in the pandemic, last April maybe, I joined a visual arts online community hosted by Kate Gridley, an acclaimed artist who lives around the corner. Open to anyone, this community has responded to Kate’s drawing prompts that have ranged from daily to weekly and met to share on Zoom on Thursday evenings.

Last week the prompt was:

Make an image, or several — a drawing, painting, photograph, collage — or a written commentary — just something personally meaningful — about something that is a vital part of your life TODAY that wasn’t a vital part of your life one year ago.

This is what I wrote:

Taking it slow…staying put, appreciating staying put.

The turn of the seasons, the days, the hours. Seeing 365 days come and go without leaving (well hardly).

Watching the birds, the light, the snow, the summer, the dramatic changes and the slow changes.

Walking the land, the same land. Our neighborhood, the Hurd Grasslands, Otter View Park, the Trail Around Middlebury.

Snowshoeing, back country skiing. Trying new things. Making our own recreation. Paddling on Otter Creek, on reservoirs, on lakes. Loving the lapping water and the dappled reflections.

Taking up the ukulele, taking lessons. Baking sour dough bread.

Feeling very close to friends and family who I am in touch with regularly on a phone call, or a zoom call, or a walk, a snowshoe, or a ski.

Becoming a better roommate to my husband, Ashley.

The rhythm of the days, a relaxed pace, a chosen pace.

The satisfaction of putting my whole self into things…writing, walking, thinking with colleagues and clients, being a friend, listening, reading, practicing yoga, knitting, drawing, painting, cooking.

Most of the time, I feel grounded, free, centered, and grateful.

At the beginning of all this, a year ago, if you had asked me to project out a year, I doubt I would have imagined such a reflection.

My neighbor and college classmate has been making small quilted pieces to hang on the wall out of colorful scraps she had left from making over a hundred masks last spring. She gifted one to her high school age grandson for his birthday and wrote, “This is a reminder that you can always help a little, and that beautiful things can come out of a hard time.”

This year, we joined up with another neighbor and fellow classmate to offer sap from our tapped maple trees. A group of neighbors all contribute sap, labor, and communal dinners for the long days of sap boiling and syrup making. They divide up the syrup at the end. Bird told me, “No money ever comes onto the table…ever.” We donate everything and we give it all away.”

We visited last year as COVID came roaring into our lives. This year, we have come full circle and are tapping our own sugar maple trees and joining the efforts of Sap Moon Sugarworks. We feel so fortunate to be included. What a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of the end of this challenging, lonely year, bookended by sweetness, sugar, and friends and neighbors working the land together.

We wish you all the very best as winter turns to spring, the buds swell, and the sap rises.

Syrup, Sap Moon Sugar Works, Weybridge, Vermont