It seems that especially in these pandemic times, everything seems to fluctuate. So many components of this image- her bird hair, the floating books, the movement of the water- is in a state of flux, completely fluid and unpredictable. One moment she has a swarm of swans on her head, and the next moment they lift off and are gone, and she is left alone.

As a professor and parent, I am used to having strategies based on wisdom, but since nothing like this has been part of my experience in the past, there is no evidence of how to navigate this new environment. It is frustrating yet necessary to teach online classes and to see my college-age children separate and “distance” themselves from friends and community in an effort to stay sheltered from the danger.

I want to speak also about quickly life moves forward during times of joy, but how painfully slow it can tick by when we are in crisis. These contrasts fascinate me. There’s a powerful line in Maya Angelou’s poem “Still, I Rise” that emphasizes the contradictions of water- tides can be certain, yet water flows with such unpredictability:

“Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still, I rise.”

In all of the contradictions and frenzied stress of these times, I hope we find hope springing high, like birds that leap and lift into the sky.

    - Janis Mars Wunderlich