SUNNYSIDE UP MOMENT - JUNE 3, 2020

DAY SEVENTY-NINE OF OUR CORONAVIRUS CLOSURE

Friends!  Here we are at the final blogpost of our coronavirus quarantine.  It has been an indulgence and an imperative to spend an hour or so every day breathing in the moment and ushering into the light whatever the exhale brought along.  This endeavor started as a way to stay connected with friends, colleagues and patrons during the pandemic and grew into an exercise to stay connected with myself.  I never planned or predicted where my morning ritual would take me.  I simply sat down at my laptop, thought about the previous day, the present moment, the foreseeable future and did my best to find some meaning, some reason and some direction.  With an ounce of courage, a pound of commitment and a ton of understanding from my immediate family, the value of this daily practice became simply immeasurable. 

As we officially open our doors tomorrow and initiate our next chapter, I feel a sense of deep gratitude for the last few months.  The road has been paved with gloom and glory in equal measure, yet, the yellow bricks beckon me forward.  I have gained and I have lost, as we all have.  And at this milepost in the journey I feel an awkward sense of equilibrium between what I want, what I have and what I need that I never could quite articulate before. 

This experience is far from over.  Yet, opening tomorrow certainly plants a flag in the progress of our humble advance.  When I look back at this collection of thoughts, I hope the universal truths that we have discovered together will not be lost in translation.  We are obligated to embrace the brightness of our days as well as the darkness of our nights.  We must kneel with humility in order to rise up with grace.  And above all, we must cherish the ties that bind us together for without them we are lost with no breadcrumbs in a dark and daunting wood.  Out of all of the things we have explored and all of the things we have expressed over the last seventy-nine days I hope these quintessential themes will inform and inspire the next.  Thank you for your attention and for your acceptance as we chronicled one of modern history’s epic adventures.  I have to go back to work now, so the ball is in your court to keep the sunny side up.  “Fare thee well now, let your life proceed by its own design.  Nothing to tell now.  Let the words be yours, I am done with mine.”  - The Grateful Dead.