Four years ago, possibility.

What our local forest looked like 4 years ago

Walking this morning, the air and the light reminded me of that lockdown spring of 2020. By April that year, we were all in it together. People made art and music in their living rooms and shared it with the world. We were learning how to use Zoom and bake sourdough and Google different customs for personal hygiene from places where toilet paper is a novelty.

What stays with me from that time is the fact that there was real hardship in many places, as COVID-19 outbreaks caused a lot of death, suffering, and separation. If we were lucky enough not to be affected by what was happening in places like New York, Seattle, Milan, and Wuhan, then we only needed to do the simple thing and stay home. Governments worked furiously to implement a Universal Basic Income, which, to my surprise, they did, thereby accidentally solving child poverty for a short time.

I want to remember it as a time when we all were in the same boat around a global problem, doing what we could to look out for each other in creative and generous ways. It didn’t last, but I will go to my grave with the tantalizing knowledge that I saw it happen with my own eyes for a few short months that spring.