Summer in the time of COVID feels as odd as it did during the school year. The sun is shining, the garden is a riot of life (there are definitely just as many weeds this year!) and yet we're still wearing masks, kids' camps include mandatory pre-testing and quarantines, social unrest is simmering everywhere, and there's still the looming question: what will happen this fall?
By now it's cliche to say that this is unprecedented, overwhelming and exhausting time. That doesn't make it any less true!
As summer sinks in, rather than feeling myself unwind after a busy year, I'm still feeling the tension of the moment. Rather than letting that distress me, I'm working to embrace the wisdom in Maya Angelo's words: "Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls." We can't ignore our reality, not feel the outrage and distress, but we must also find calm - joy, even! - in the moments that are ours to control. Passion and patience.
In this newsletter, I hope you'll find some summer resources to fuel your passions alongside permission to be patient: take the time to listen, learn and find meaning before you act - even with August and September looming. In the space between, we'll find ourselves.
Oh, and Angelo also famously said: "If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?" So don't beat yourself up for the extra hours engrossed in your book, daydreaming in the shade, or pulling weeds in the garden - you deserve it!