Living each day during the COVID-19 pandemic slowly wiped away the certainties of what was “normal.” Each morning placed a new palette of worries, fears, stresses and hope onto life’s canvas. Many times, we yearned to throw open the door and enter into the world just as we normally had. This longing to return to “normal” seemed a kind of “reaching for the stars.” Traces of our old lives haunted our thoughts, leaving us to dream as to what our “new normal” would be like.

Just before Christmas of 2020, I had to vacate my apartment for asbestos removal causing me to live in one of the only hotels opened on the
island (Oahu). When entering the hotel room, I immediately became fixated by the view below. Was this a dream? To see people freely moving along the beach below, with some social distancing, while others were interacting playfully in the water, was jolting. Watching the scene below temporarily wiped away all traces of the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic. Was this a glance, or a dream, into the future as humanity emerged from the pandemic? My COVID Dream encapsulates the emotional tenderness of humanity emerging from a global pandemic.