The Post-Covid Unfurling

How freakin' beautiful is this video? I was raised on classical music, and really good Beethoven still brings me to tears and fills me with All The Feels—those deep emotions that are more spiritual than anything else.

Tonight as I watched this through teary eyes I promised myself, "When this Covid-thing is over, I’m FINALLY going to join a choir." (I’ve wanted to be part of a choir for years and I just never got around to it.) And then I wondered, “Just how many OTHER people over the past eight months have thought, ‘When this is all over, I’m finally going to...’”

And a little vision came to me. Imagine...all of us incubating right now for months, maybe years, in our homes and honing our dreams. We are, in effect, setting very strong intentions.

In addition to this brewing, we are also adapting for the sake of our sanity. Our necessary changes can also be seen as creativity. We are basically PRACTICING OUR CREATIVITY SKILLS.

So! Can you imagine what's going to happen in a few months or years when we are finally free to ‘move about the cabin’? OMG. We’ll have practiced these new creativity skills and we’ll have all these “maybe I’ll finally” intentions all built up with a ton of pressure and readiness. AND the pressure-cooker steam will be released! Can you JUST IMAGINE the explosion of art and creativity we will experience? Can you imagine how many people will be inspired to sing? To play music? To be an audience member? To try something new? Can you imagine how FUN it will be?

No, really. Stop and close your eyes and take this in. Can you imagine the JOY?

As the movie ended, I felt aware of the artistic experiences I am missing because of this pandemic, and how much I took for granted. When this is all over, I feel certain I’m going to take every opportunity to create and share art with others—live music, theater, street performances, the symphony, the opera, ballet, DANCING (OMG DANCING!!!), book readings, museums, film…. Jimminie Christmas, can you imagine the unfurling that is going to happen? The excitement I feel in anticipation of that day actually GIVES these solitary days purpose.

My dear friends, in the hard moments this fall and winter, cast your thread forward in time and anchor your trust in that beauty.

I hope and pray (and by that I mean I am currently creating so I can contribute when the time comes) there will be just as much—if not more—art and creativity in the future as there is civil unrest and pain now. This will be over some day. Can you FEEL the joy, creativity, expression coming our way?

Thank you to the artists hard at work making these Covid-days more tolerable. And thank you to the artists already preparing for when we can, finally, gather to unfurl together.