Slower days, smiling eyes, intentional connections, and mutual aid.

Sometime after the shock wore off—was it May? June?—days began to stretch out. We reorganized our lives to find nooks of space and time for a family with online work and school. We found the right times to shop and the right things to buy in the right amounts. We settled into a new routine without afterschool clubs and Saturday meets, with no parties or summer camps or travel plans.

How many times had we dreamed of being less busy? Would we have agreed to it if we knew we’d have to trade time with friends and extended family? No way. In fact, this year truly highlighted the power of a beloved community.

Slow days and a renewed love for community—that’s the treasure we’ll take forward with us.

I don’t know when days will accelerate again or whether we’ll slip easily back into packed agendas and calendars filled for months. If we do—may we hold on to the wisdom of occasional slowness. And may we choose the ways we spend our time and the community with whom we spend it, with the intention of people who know that none of it is guaranteed.

Let’s keep the mutual aid networks that we grew this year. And keep amplifying voices that were previously silenced. And even when the masks finally come off, let’s keep sending messages with our eyes and listening closer to hear and understand.