Bracing

Hi neighbors! Welcome to 2025. How are you holding up? I feel, well, I’m not sure. Weird, anxious, joyful, peaceful, fearful. And, I know it’s because of next week. I’ve been surprised at how many memories have popped up for me lately from the 2020-2023 years (I’ll call those the pandemic years - I know COVID isn’t over but the most acute phase is.). I’m not sure I should call them ‘memories’. More appropriately, they should be called triggers because that’s what it seems to do to me. I remember (as many of you all do too, I’m sure) the pandemic years with such vividness still. It was something that completely upended many of our lives. For me, everything that we had as a foundation changed. Our church, friends, we moved, changed jobs. And, I don’t know if the world has taken the time it needs to recover from that collective whiplash-whammy-tsunami ride of change that we had. I have tried to take the time to recover and in many ways I have, thankfully. I’m certainly stronger and wiser.

Then we have the same leaders from the pandemic years coming into power on Monday. And, it feels like a whammy-wave again.