Much has been going on in the world. It's been harder than usual to keep a routine with writing or keep a routine with anything for that matter. I have a strong feeling I'm not alone in that. Still, I am finding beauty in the stillness, excitement over the sprouts in my patio garden and clarity over things I now have more time to think about. There are still sleepless nights when I can't turn my brain off and every so often, a laugh that means to be a cry but isn't. Yesterday, I talked on the phone with one of my longtime close friends and she mentioned something in the vein of what our plans were for 2020. We laughed loud. What even are plans for 2020? I haven't looked at my planner in more than two months. I write everything on a dry erase board now and pray more often than I used to.
I read an article that was encouraging folks to journal about these times we're living in and donate them so that future generations will be able to learn from our time. I don't know if they will but I sure hope they do. Perhaps that's what we're doing now is gardening time. For this graduating Class of 2020, they have the story of a lifetime, to have graduated online and had a commencement celebration that the world could watch. Still, it's just not the same. It has a particular bite to it that's hard to chew. No matter what, all graduations whether the first or the last carry a hope that there will be something great to follow. There's a hope that one can celebrate all the graduations that one's heart desires. They say the graduating class is the future. Truth is we all are the future. What they mean to say is the graduating class no matter how old is the future we might not get to see but we hope is better than any of the futures we lived through. Commencement was cancelled but the future is not. I think about the Class of 2020 and say many congratulations. It is somehow strange to say but worth saying nonetheless.
Today, the sky is cloudy. I hope somewhere folks are still dreaming big, taking time to care for themselves and continuing to be inventive about how they care for others whether that's honking from a car or having food delivered or sending a virtual hug. I'm going to enjoy a cup of chai tea and read another chapter of Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. Later, I'll be prepping to host Poetic Vibe virtually on Zoom and tonight, I plan to sleep the whole night through, fingers crossed. I'm looking forward to the future even if I haven't the faintest idea of what that will look like. All I can do is today, this blog post, a new seedling in the soil.