Beyond COVID: Leaning Into Tomorrow

Stories had always been my language; as a child, creating them was my way of expressing the wonder and possibility around me. As a teenager, writing in my diary was my way of processing the world. As a young adult, I believed life was more than what it was on the surface. There was some bigger truth to be explored, something yearning to be understood, something beyond me begging for expression, something that mattered: a story waiting to be told.
(Sara Etgen-Baker, "Beacons of hope")

A woman without a mask in a dollar store tried to convince me that COVID is a hoax by the Democrats. It left me in a state of shock and disbelief that anyone in America could think such a reality was possible, let alone logical.
(Jan Marquart, "Leaning Into Tomorrow After Covid")

(...) in the early summer of 2021, just when the vaccinated were dashing toward the exits and the promised return to normalcy, the Delta variant cancelled Intermission. Anti-vaxxers cancelled civility. Misinformation cancelled confidence.

As a single mother raising a child and finishing my own education, I didn't have much money. But I had a future.
(Claire McCabe, "Musings on Community Health Care")

I can't shake this feeling that the Universe is demanding something from us. And we're not listening.