Well, that happened.

I lost count of the number of times in 2020 I sat down to write and then abandoned the attempt. Every year has stages and seasons, and it seems that, inevitably, whenever I pick a topic on which to write, life has moved onward before I’m done writing. But last year… Last year all that was heightened. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that 2020 was a space in between—in which multiple years passed between the calendar turning over twice and yet no time at all. Where are we? Who are we? What happens next? 

For the past several years I have attempted to sit down in the waning of the old year and the waxing of the new one to collect the past twelve months (and the readings thereof) into some sort of summary reflection. I usually feel like I’m starting that project too late. At least in that respect, this year is no different. This year I have so much to untangle I feel I need even more time—and some extra space as well. So this year, rather than offer one “Reflections” post and one “Read List” post, I have decided to experiment instead with a series of reflections. In my notes I have organized these (half-humorously) as the “Stages of Quarantine” because 1) when planning anything it helps me to try and sort things into categories, and 2) while 2020 certainly held a good deal of personal joy in our house, a good portion of it felt a lot like grieving, so the allusion holds up. 

The problem with sorting the year in the way I’ve chosen to do it is that, of course, while there is certainly some semblance of an arc to the way things have unfolded—and one thing does tend to follow another—in this strangest of years most especially, nothing was really chronological or sequential. Thoughts and phases wove in and out of each other. Projects and lines of thought were brought in and phased out; some came back around again, and some didn’t.  The one common thread through it all seems to be that 2020 demanded a good deal of reflection and reframing. While wading through the mire on my own side of the fence, I have found solace, encouragement, and sometimes eye-opening insight in the thoughts and experiences of others. I don’t pretend to promise the same here. But whether in reading on you seek entertainment, diversion, reflection, direction, comfort, or something entirely different, in the posts I’ll share in the next few weeks I offer to you my own adventures in the “In Between.” We’re not out of the woods yet, but, with what I hope is a light glimmering not too far in the distance, I’ll hazard a glimpse back to see how 2020 looks from the other side.