After a few weeks of required stay-at-home isolation this spring due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, I slid into a funk. There seemed to be no end in sight, as if the situation were interminable. I felt lackadaisical, uninspired, dull, and discouraged; I had joined in regurgitative groupthink, lamenting that I was eager for everything and everyone to get “back to normal.”

But then I “woke up,” startled at how I’d been drifting along mentally. Back to normal? No way! I don’t want to go back to anything, I thought. I always want to move forward and make spiritual progress with joy.

The concept of going “back” to anything began to feel ludicrous. I pictured myself trying to drive my truck from California to New York while looking only in my rearview mirror and ignoring the road ahead. It wouldn’t be long before I crashed. The feeling that good was in the past and had to be recaptured, or that I had to wait for a “better than ever” future scenario in order to be OK, seemed wrong.