It's starting to feel like spring again. On my morning walks, I am transported back to the feelings I had in early quarantine, when it all felt new, sort of like an adventure, a temporary experience. The air feels fresh and alive, our plum tree is budding with the first curling green leaves and the jasmine down the street smells sweet and evokes nostalgia for a simpler time -- leisurely meals on the front porch, baking bread and Tiger King.

So much can happen in a year! March marked one year since our world shifted drastically, and here I am, vaccinated and just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But what exactly is on the other side? I find myself thinking about all the changes this year has brought, both globally and personally. There was a time I would have been excited and ready to pick right back up where I left off, with my packed social schedule, lots of travel and big career goals. But as they say, "a (wo)man can not step in the same river twice" -- the world has changed, and so have I.

I recently looked back at my Google calendar from before the pandemic. How did I have time for all those meetings and events on the calendar every week? I was exhausted just looking at it. I love and miss travel, but I have also begun to feel more rooted in my neighborhood here in LA, more invested in creating positive change in my community and in the world. I'm exploring my art in new ways, beginning to free myself from some of the lofty expectations and pressure I have put on my work, and myself as an artist.

In last year's March recap, things had just begun to change. The year was reset, plans were shifted. Our days slowed. I shared a quote by Pema Chödrön, about things falling apart and coming back together again. Now, one year later, I want to share another quote of hers.

“When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid. You're able to keep your eyes open, your heart open, and your mind open... And, you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start to do things differently.”
― Pema Chödrön

We have certainly experienced continual change and the impermanence of our reality this past year. But have we opened ourselves up to embrace it?

It is natural to want to return to "the way things were" or hope things stay the same. But why? Individually and as a society, we have been given an opportunity to start doing things differently, to not be afraid of change. We can let go of things that don't work, and to center things that do. This is a chance to build new routines, habits, selves. We don't need to recreate our pre-pandemic lives, to cling to who we were or who we thought we should be. We don't need to see the "before" as permanent -- or even as good. Will we allow ourselves to dream up a new life? A new world? A new way?

If we keep our eyes, hearts and minds open, this pandemic could change us. Will we be brave enough to let it?