How do we mourn the parts of our lives we're still losing?
In March 2020, for the first time in my adult life, my calendar was totally, stunningly, empty. I accepted the change, assuming our newfound stasis would be temporary. Part of me was grateful to be shaken out of my routines, however jarring the interruption was. After all, there were more important things than the lecture on leadership models in women's sports I was going to give in Rhode Island that spring. We all had to do our part to stop Covid. |
Of course, it wasn't temporary. When I got into the elevator and went home from work that last day before lockdown, my life, like most people's, changed forever. Now that we're winding down a second year of pandemic, and bracing for yet another holiday amid yet another Covid surge, a new truth is sinking in. Our lives are not going to go back to the way they were. |
Instead, we're left to grieve the lives we've lost — and continue to lose. In today's video, made with Kirby Ferguson and Emily Holzknecht, I propose a framework for doing just that. Most of us could use one right now. There are so many plans that got put on hold and then simply never happened. Years we'll never get back. Sometimes it feels like the only thing that moved forward in the pandemic was time. |
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Of course, we're grateful for what we still have. But the precious things we lost, even the little things, matter. And the idea that we should just move on with our lives — maybe the idea that there's any closure to be had at all — is flawed. We can be grateful and grieve at the same time. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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