This month we’re still in the throws of the COVID-19 pandemic and I am still bursting with gratitude for the gift it has given us. And no, self- quarantining has not made me lose my mind. Rather, it has allowed me to re-find it!

This month the worldwide pandemic known as COVID-19 is an unavoidable topic. I suspect it, and its inevitable effects will be at the fore of our consciousness for some time. Like many of you, I started out in panic. But I have found myself growing more and more calm every day. I’ve realized that the agitation I have felt for many months was intuitive sensing of the rumbles telling me that something big was coming. And now that it’s here, I find myself oddly relieved to be dealing with what is rather than spiraling out of control with what ifs.

I am always fascinated when I go into someone's home and it is filled with things they don't really love or use, but feel obligated to keep. Many times these items have been given as gifts or find their way to us when a family member dies.

While entering a new year and decade typically marks the passage of time and change, this particular new year seems to have come in with a very different vibration. For many of us, it feels like an urgent decision needs to be made about how we are going to show up in the world going forward, and what we are going to contribute to it.

Happy New Year! How exciting to once again be on the crest of a new year. It’s a chance to put an old chapter to rest and write a new one.

"Resolutions" seems to be the key word in January. If you've ventured to a bookstore or looked at the magazines in the supermarket check-out lately you've seen that word splashed on every cover. We're bombarded with reminders that this is the time to shake things up. In January, revenues from gym memberships, smoke-ending programs and weight loss companies soar. We vow (with much gusto) to direct our energies toward change, only to find most of that energy has dissipated by months' end.

Something curious happens to me around this time of year. While stores, catalogs and tradition prepare us for the onslaught of receiving more "stuff, I get an overwhelming urge to get rid of "stuff. And it's not just me, two people I spoke with this week said they too were feeling the urge to purge. They wondered if it was a natural reaction to the overindulgence that is kicked off at Thanksgiving and goes full speed ahead for six weeks. For me, I know this instinct is stirred in part by a deep seeded fear of being outnumbered by things that Il have to maintain, insure or clean.

For the past year or so I have had a change in my morning routine. Rather than instantly grabbing my phone to see what’s some into my inbox, I immediately go outside with my journal and my beloved dog, Frankie. I spend time writing and then listening to the sights and sounds of the nature surrounding me. The calls and chirps of the birds, the sight of my bees bearding their hives, and watching Frankie chase butterflies or romp in the deep snow sets up my day in a way that coffee never could.