Dear reader,

 As I wake up each day, in the moments before full consciousness, I hear the sound of the birds just outside my window hearkening spring’s arrival, I feel the warmth of the sun pouring into the room breaking through the grey of winter, and I forget. I forget about the new reality our daily lives have taken on, I forget about the interruptions and the breaks that have disrupted our familiar normalcy, and I forget about the uncertainty of what is happening or what is to come.

So, what can we do in the face of adversity such as this? How do we manage a strategic retreat of our lives? We know that in order to bring this epidemic to a crashing halt, we need to stay at home and, when we are in public out of necessity, we must remain vigilant— maintaining distances, avoiding direct physical contact with items, and washing our hands. But how do we handle the time in between? How do we confront devastation when we can’t visibly see the effects of retreat, when the solution is action by inaction?

Cutting the cord from the outside world, while difficult and uncertain, can give us valuable time to pause and reflect on what is most important in our lives. Many of us live to uplift family, yet we hardly think about what we’re doing. We go through the motions of being there yet shallowly scratch only the surfaces of each other. Technology, which has often been a source of isolation, of disconnecting from the people around us, now, in this time of physical isolation, serves as a way to connect.

There is much that we cannot do during this time, but there is also much that we can. While our lives have been put on pause, we have not stopped living. Just as spring continues to come and the birds sing their song, we must continue to sing ours— apart yet together in solidarity.

Patrick Wood

Publisher