We are here, at the in-between.

The past we know, the crisis we’ve endured, the changes accepted, managed and tolerated. We came together, we focused and we responded.

But now we are at the in-between.

We are thinking of returning to normal, yet we have no idea of what normal is. There are parts of the old normal we’d rather not see come back. But there are parts of the old normal we will grieve as forever lost.

So we look ahead.

We are planning a new normal. We are putting structures in place, real ones like plexiglass shields and emotional ones, like naming our hugging bubble. We see it as a step forward, a step to the new normal.

A step closer to the old normal.

But we are in the in-between.

We are in the in-between because we don’t know if it worked. We flattened the curve, we planked the curve, we owned the curve! Yet is it enough?

We are dipping our toe in the shallow end of the new normal.

Will the curve rear up into the second wave or is the shallow safe?

We are in the in-between.

Not knowing, wanting to try, wanting to branch out, wanting to fly.

We are in the in-between.

Francesca Dobbyn is the Executive Director of United Way Bruce Grey, a critical community resource on a mission to improve lives and build community by engaging individuals and mobilizing collective action.  

Cover photo by Karolina Grabowska