Pandemic Gratitude and Renewal

Jan 02, 2022

2021 has been a year of starts and stops for Alberta. A grand opening for summer followed by a grand slamming of doors in the fall. A year of cautious optimism, naïve celebration, growing fear, more cautious optimism.

We can’t know what the future will bring. More monster variants, more masks, fewer hugs, mountains of swabs and apps and QR codes built to keep us safe.   

Yet as we ring in the new year and the challenges ahead, I can’t help but feel grateful.

-Grateful to the artists who in isolation continue to create books and films and plays and paintings and sculptures and all the pieces that makes life bearable, perhaps now more than ever.

-Grateful to the organizations that have twisted into pretzels to make learning and connecting possible during this pandemic: The Alberta Writers’ Guild, The Writers Union of Canada and the Alexandra Writers Centre Society to name just a few.

-Grateful to the Canada Council, whose financial support has helped keep me going during the dark days of 2021.  

-Grateful for my family and friends for the light and love they bring to my world.  

The existential dread and devastation created by COVID has been immeasurable. Yet as I contemplate renewal in 2022, I’m seeking a gentler path, inspired by the words from poet and novelist May Sarton:

“I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep….Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.”

I’m grateful to you, dear readers, and wish you renewal and blessings in the coming year.

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