I’m stuck between a place where life feels very normal…and at the same time, life feels like some sort of alternate reality.

The normal moments are when I watch kids climb trees or cuddle my cat or look out over frosty trees from a summit. Catching up with friends in faraway places and trying new recipes. Coming home to find that there’s not one, but two pencils stuffed into my messy bun. Reading books that have been on my list for far too long and talking myself out of buying a pint of ice cream at the grocery store (maybe). Reading a silly book to students or teaching them how to make pie…

But then I glance up and see masked faces. Or I have a Zoom meeting with a parent and chuckle to myself because “that’s” what they look like! I nod at strangers on trails while hanging onto a tree at the edge of a cliff, trying to give them space and take some of my own. Exchanging stories about Mo Willems with the cashier at the grocery store because I have a pigeon mask. Having the hostess at a restaurant take my temperature before seating me.

The masks and the distance have become normal…but not in a way that I can accept as reality. But this is the reality where we exist right now.

So I will continue baking and hiking and teaching and reading and cuddling my cat. I will savor all of the moments that feel normal…and be grateful that I have those.