Emerging from the pandemic lockdown has been an interesting challenge. Finding balance between the slow, quiet (albeit fearful) days of 2020, compared to the now open, now traveling, now meeting and working face to face reality… it’s definitely caused me some consternation. I don’t want to lose what I gained, but I also don’t want to live in a shell, away from the world. Case in point, I flew on an airplane last week to the east coast. I attended a large family gathering. I drank and ate and laughed and cried…with other people. I also spent a day in NYC, riding the subway (!), hanging out in Washington Square Park (!), eating a pastry in my favorite Italian bakery (!), and then jumping on another flight back to New Mexico. A few months ago this would have seemed impossible. Yet, here I am. I realize how privileged I am to write these words, to have experienced everything I have just described. Also, how lucky I am just to be alive, to have survived, not only the past year and a half, but also the decades before. I have turned inwards so much, it was good to step outside and feel the world around me once again. I hope for the same for all of you, whether it’s next week or next year. We are here, now. We may hold still for a moment (or months or years) but ultimately, we keep going.