Do Re Me Creative

23/08/2024

New episode of Human Cogs Podcast with STAN GRANT

Stan Grant is a man of remarkable intellect, profound story and deep faith.

On a late winter’s afternoon recently, I meet Stan in a moment when he is on a difficult journey through a kind of lament - deeply contemplating the three big disciplines that have steeled his extraordinary life and work - physics, philosophy and theology.

Stan says since the Voice to Parliament Referendum he’s been taking time to take stock, that he’s done too much time plucking the wings off butterflies - and that right now he’d rather write beauty into the world.

So he’s been working on a new book that is a meditation on time, on God, on the temporal nature of our being and on the complex state of our modern world.

As a journalist and correspondent who covered war for 40 years, Stan has seen the worst of what we can do to each other but he has also seen love endure in the most Godforsaken of places. So he knows first-hand the paradoxical contradictions of what it means to be a human in a world like ours.

Stan believes it’s essential we all have something bigger than ourselves to believe in because if the human being is the limit, then we will only see the limits of the human.

And in a world so often consumed by the chaos of modernity, ongoing conflicts and the binaries of identity, Stan Grant is keenly focussed these days on kindling what we share rather than what divides us for, as Franz Kafka said, identity is a cage in search of a bird.

I’d love you to listen to this episode of Human Cogs to meet Stan Grant the mortal, discover what might lie beyond this life, and how we humans can all - somehow - someday - find our place in the untold cosmos.

Guest: Stan Grant - Award-winning Journalist, Author, Writer, Poet and Vice Chancellor’s Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University.
Host: Madeleine Hanger (Grummet)
Producer: Daryl Missen

LISTEN NOW:

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/human-cogs-podcast/id1525840415?i=1000666220845

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3c8MSHo022bx1DBSkTb7Xy?si=HlljJxXVTj6p9vPfb64-qQ&t=3

14/05/2024

Decided to go back for my hat 😉 🎓

I’m not usually one for blatant social media self-aggrandisement but this was a pretty big one to clock after a bit of an annus horribilis …

Today I donned a flat hat and strange robe and under my robe a lock of my sister’s dark hair and on my fingers my Mothers and Grandmother’s rings on both sides to stand fully under the Autumn sun on the grounds of my old Alma Mater because I decided this moment was well worth candling …

Graduation from a Monash University ‘Masters of Journalism with Distinction’ and receiving (somehow given what the universe hurled our way 😳) an Academic Award for the Faculty of Arts 2023 ‘Highest Achievement in the Master of Journalism’.

Monash’s Motto ‘Ancora Imparo’ means “I am still learning”; that the search for knowledge never ends, often attributed to Michaelangelo and penned by him in his ninth decade of life …

The privilege of formal learning is not lost on me … I use it everyday … but so much of my deepest and most edifying learning hasn’t ended in mortarboards but in the folds of my phenomenal family and friends and in the hard true mark of human stuff; of love and lament, of search and surrender, of soldered wounds and shedding skins, of seeking truths and surviving - somehow - the extraordinary ordinary things.

So I’m clocking this. Clocking life. Carpe fu***ng diem. Memento Mori. Still learning. 👊🏽🙏🏼💕

16/04/2024

Humanity is built on stories. Stories help us make sense of ourselves, each other and what’s playing out in the complex world around us.

Human Cogs Podcast is proud to announce our support of the ‘2024 Sorrento Writers Festival’ as a Media Partner alongside ABC Australia as we celebrate the stories untold that will ignite audiences and venues across the Mornington Peninsula from April 25-April 28.

Over four jam-packed days, 190 authors, writers, journalists and visionaries will speak at 130 events and invite you to engage in issues from democracy to poetry to social activism, faith and free speech.

We’ll be there taking it all in - and filling our storied cups.🙏🏼

Please check out the extraordinary SWF 2024 program curated by Festival Director Corrie Perkin - and snap up some last minute tickets. Nearly sold out!🏃🏻‍♀️

https://sorrentowritersfestival.com.au

28/03/2024

New episode of Human Cogs Podcast with the extraordinary and indomitable Grace Tame.

Grace Tame is a name that needs little introduction, but that doesn’t mean you know Grace - or indeed her story - on her own terms.

Catapulted into the spotlight as ‘Australian of the Year’ in 2021, Grace stepped squarely into the public eye and became a powerful catalyst for a tidal wave of conversation, action and policy change for survivor-victims of sexual abuse across Australia.

Finally, this was a chance for to find - and use - her voice, after years of shadows and silence.

“Let’s make some noise Australia” was her catchcry.

In this honest and at times confronting conversation on Human Cogs, Grace shares with us the findings of a new Australian study that validates what victim-survivors have been saying for years; that child sexual abuse is a public health issue and the current statistics are shocking.

Child sexual abuse is widespread in this country. According to the study, one in six (15.1%) Australian men report sexual feelings towards children and one in ten (9.4%) Australian men have sexually offended against children.

Grace calls for policy change and accountability for the big tech giants who continue to allow online access to child sexual abuse material on their sites, and for intensive education so grooming is implicitly understood by children, parents and bystanders - which means all of us.

Like every human on earth, Grace is a work in progress, and is still coming to terms with her experiences of instability, uncertainty and trauma. But she is powerfully reclaiming her narrative by ceding control as an adult in charge of the story of her life. And in Grace’s words: “Peace is not freedom from pain; it is the acceptance of it.”

LISTEN NOW: Human Cogs Podcast wherever you get your podcasts 🙂 ▶️🎧

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7x7pPzOD1R985XtnENmzbr?si=4SuNaf-VRnyD9vNsPqvf-g

APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/human-cogs-podcast/id1525840415?i=1000650708197
�Hosts: Madeleine Grummet & Sabina Read
Producer: Daryl Missen

‼️WARNING: This episode is about child sexual abuse, and may be disturbing to some listeners. If you need support please contact Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14 or 1800 RESPECT.

04/09/2023

Over recent weeks we’ve all watched and listened to the debate over 'The Voice to Parliament' play out in the media, at dinner tables and in the public sphere.

Conversations have caught fire and a lot of confusion has got in the way of the facts.

This is partly because right-wing hardliners have deliberately launched misinformation and disinformation to seed fear, cloud issues and inflame political debate. But also because many people say they don’t really know what the proposed Voice to parliament and constitutional recognition actually mean, and what it will mean for Australia going forward …

And yet, how many people - including you - are actively taking responsibility to seek out facts, stay informed and educate yourself about ?

The referendum date is set for October 14.

The Voice would enshrine in the nation’s constitution a mechanism for a group of Indigenous representatives to offer advice to the Executive Government and Parliament on matters and issues affecting the lives of and people. Embedding the Voice in the constitution would also finally recognise the special place First Nations people have in Australian history.

The Voice would be an advisory body designed to improve outcomes in health, education and wellbeing. It would NOT have the power to veto laws.

As a I understand and am committed to platforming many different points of view.

But as a person committed to equal opportunity and fairness, and improving outcomes for indigenous people who are - proportionally - the most incarcerated people on the planet by percentage of their population, the most disadvantaged ethnic group in Australia and a people who have an life expectancy of nearly eight years shorter than other Australian men and women, I personally think this referendum is a once in a generation chance to bring our country together.

I asked Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo to join me on to have an open conversation about what the Voice to parliament means, and why it will play an important role in Australia’s future.

Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man, the Assistant National Secretary of the MUA, a signatory of the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and he sits on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Referendum Working Group.

Mayo has also recently co-written a book with acclaimed journalist Kerry O’Brien called 'The Voice to Parliament Handbook', to equip Australians with simple and balanced information about the Voice.

No matter your view, I encourage you to listen to this conversation and make it your responsibility to make an informed decision when you step up to vote on October 14.

It is the least you can do for democracy, for justice, for fairness - and for the future of our country.

🎙 🎧 THOMAS MAYO in conversation with MADS GRUMMET

LISTEN (32 minutes): https://lnkd.in/gcx9Zv_F

SPOTIFY: https://lnkd.in/gM68jTpJ

APPLE: https://rb.gy/jy7uc

_____________________________________________

LEARN MORE:

Read the Australian Government Referendum Question and Constitutional Amendment: https://voice.gov.au/referendum-2023/referendum-question-and-constitutional-amendment

What is The Voice? https://voice.gov.au/

National Indigenous Australians Agency: https://www.niaa.gov.au/

The Voice To Parliament Handbook: https://lnk.to/thevoicetoparliamentbook

Yes23: https://www.yes23.com.au/

22/08/2023

I’ve been taking a break from sitting behind the mic on the Human Cogs Podcast these past weeks as I heal my heart and come to terms with the devastating loss of someone I loved very deeply.💔

So this episode resonated as I walk through this other country that is grief.

We all think the unthinkable can’t happen. But it can. And it does.

I would encourage you to make space to listen to this, and to walk in another’s shoes for a while.🙏🏼

New episode / Dr Lucy Hone🎙🎧 in conversation with Sabina Read

A quick google search shows that eight hundred million people have searched for the term resilience and close to five hundred million have searched for the term grief. However far less frequently have the two concepts collided.

Dr Lucy Hone is a best-selling author, speaker and award-winning academic researcher with a gift for translating complex science into practical tools.

Regarded as a thought leader in the field of resilience psychology, Lucy was forced to focus more closely on grief when her 12-year-old daughter Abi was killed in a horrific motor accident in 2014.

Her TED talk, 3 Secrets of Resilient People, was one of the Top 20 most watched TED talks of 2020. And her wisdom can now be found on Insight Timer as well as through her cohort-based and online courses run through the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience. Her recently edition of her book, Resilient Grieving, offers readers practical and compassionate strategies and insights to cope with loss.

In this conversation Lucy shares how she applied her deep knowledge in resilience to her very personal story of grief, and how loss - in its many shapes and forms - will inevitably touch us all.

Lucy somehow seems to balance a powerful mix of authenticity, vulnerability, wisdom and knowledge alongside her own kaleidoscope of honest and raw emotions ranging from unbearable pain to finding joy again. With warmth and hope, she reminds us that we can both grieve and live.

LISTEN NOW wherever you get your podcasts or via this link: https://www.humancogs.com/listen


Hosts: Sabina Read Psychology + Madeleine Grummet
Guest: Dr Lucy Hone
Producer: Daryl Missen

HUMAN COGS

27/02/2023

is just around the corner on Wednesday 8 March 2023.🙋🏻‍♀️

I’ll be out and about for the month of March speaking at events, joining panels and flying the flag to celebrate women, and shine a light on best practice solutions for countering the bias, stereotypes and discrimination that can hold women back in boardrooms, businesses, startups, politics and beyond.▶️

Really looking forward to some challenging and educational conversations with those at the forefront of change driving innovation and cracking the DEI code to create a more gender-equal future in Australia.⚖️

Please support in big or little ways or however you can to celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about discrimination and take action to drive gender parity.🌏

IWD belongs to everyone, everywhere.
International Women's Day

09/03/2022

We asked Master of Entrepreneurship alum and Diversity, Leadership and Equality Advocate, Madeleine Grummet what means to her.

“We need to break down the binaries, stereotypes and structures in the systems that dictate our day-to-day lives. We can do this by collaboratively redesigning and redefining a world that is diverse, equitable and truly inclusive. By mentoring the next generation to step up and become the leaders, founders, and visionaries of tomorrow. So, here’s to strong women. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them.”

Tap through to read more about Madeleine’s impact on the community → unimelb.me/34jHJZP

14/12/2021

Crawling to the finish line this year but so bloody thankful for the seriously amazing humans in my fold - friends and family and colleagues. ✨✨✨ 🙏🏼

14/12/2021

New episode!

🎙🧠🎧 LISTEN NOWcogs

George McEncroe is a entrepreneur, writer, standup comedian, educator and complete force of nature. 👊🏽

The single mother of four hates orthodoxies, has a roll up your sleeves can-do mantra, and has spent her life giving everything a crack to dial up the carpe diem in her every day so she doesn’t die wondering.

In this episode, we hear about some of the formative experiences that have shaped the adult George is today, including the trauma of losing her beloved sister to su***de, weathering a marriage breakup, mental health challenges, and her commitment to continuous self-reflection and self-improvement so she can build a safe harbour for herself, and those in her fold.🙏🏼

George reflects on the realisation that she is more capable than she ever thought, and also that being overly trusting of others hasn’t always served her well as an entrepreneur.

She also shares the ways she has found to calm her mind, by journaling her fears and resentments, meditating, minimising alcohol, and uncoupling herself from her work.❌

There’s a lot in this conversation, including quite a few F-bombs 💣 (sorry about that!). But the truth is it’s a story from the heart - it’s raw, it’s real, and it’s strong. ❤️

We started by asking George some rapid-fire questions, beginning with who she is in the world of biscuits. Tune in for the whole convo available now ▶️🎙✨🎧 on      or via our website LINK IN BIO 🔝👆🏽

08/12/2021

TBH I haven't really got my head around Christmas this year (just trying to manage the post-lockdown janky 🤪), but I did purchase this beautiful artwork called ‘Flood Plains’ by Beau W The Torch]

It is beautiful and detailed, and it reminds me of my two sisters and I - the three of us swimming in the lakes of our lives but always connected through tiny rivulets and shared tributaries that lead us to each other.💦

If you're looking to buy gifts that give more than to the receiver, or just catalyse real for no calendar-dictated reason, please do consider purchasing an incredible artwork from The Torch]

In 2016 the Victorian Government developed the Aboriginal Arts Policy that allows Indigenous men and women participating in ‘The Torch’ program to sell their artworks while still in custody, and in 2020 alone, 299 Indigenous offenders participated in the ‘In Prison’ program.

Funded by the through Corrections Victoria, The Torch 'In Prison' component is run across all 14 Victorian correctional facilities which enables incarcerated men and women to be supported by Indigenous Arts Officers to learn more about their language group, culture and Country, and access support with development.

Selected artwork is sold through The Torch online shop, St Kilda gallery and via annual exhibitions, with 100% of the sale price going directly to the artist.✅

"In the past I was a crook, you know, a jail bird, but now I am an artist. My daughter is so proud of that. I never used to think of myself that way." - Chris Austin, Gunditjmara Keerraaywoorrong 🙏🏼▶️

08/12/2021

Anyone else feeling a bit like this right now?
😳▶️ I am!!!

It feels like the world sped up again post lockdown, and that we haven’t had enough time to stop, synthesise and make sense of what we’ve all lived through, and where we’re hurtling next. 🌏▶️

So we’re sending quietude and spaces to those who need it most right now.🙏🏼

And if you’re looking for some human company in your quiet times, jump into the Human Cogs] podcast back catalogue and listen to some of your favourite episodes from 2021. 🎙▶️✨❤️

Thanks for listening, and for being part of our community. Plenty more conversations coming your way soon, to help you make sense of yourself, and the ever-changing world around us.🌏

Thanks for an amazing year Human Cogs] dreamteam + Ange 🙏🏼✨

01/12/2021

I get it. I’m guilty. 🙋🏻‍♀️My kids are guilty. 🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♀️We have never been so addicted to technology and our devices as we have coming out of successive lockdowns … 📲💻⌨️🥺

So I loved this conversation with
Human Cogs] who gets this stuff, and who, in her own words, has a “job of the future”. 🙋🏻‍♀️🤖

A psychologist and ex-teacher who helps individuals and organisations be well connected and mentally fit, she has been working with adolescents, families and adults for a decade, and understands the complexity of busy modern life, the increasing role of in our work and how healthy digital and screen habits need to be consciously shaped by us all.

But rather than see exponential technology and as a dark force in our lives, Jocelyn debunks the notion of screen addiction and instead invites us all to do an audit on our relationship with our technology devices, so we can make better choices about our “digital nutrition” - that is what we choose to watch, like, who we follow and much time we’re actually spending online.

In this chat my fabbo cohost 🎙✨ and I explore this and more as Joycelyn reveals strategies and simple tips to help guide the use of technology for young people and adults, and she has a heap of great resources and courses you can access online to help you or someone you know who might need to set some boundaries around their relationship with technology. ❤️📲❌

We started by asking Jocelyn how the worlds of teaching, psychology and technology came to collide in her own life…

LISTEN NOW Human Cogs]     or via our website LINK IN BIO 🔝

30/11/2021

In between the bouts of return to ‘real life’, rapid antigen tests, remembering how to make small talk and wearing a bra outside the house 🤷🏻‍♀️, I’ve also been reflecting lately on the many milestones of this year and the incredible people I’ve had the privilege of working with to bring to the market in Australia during successive lockdowns.

As anyone in startups knows, ideas are the easy part – but it’s the implementation that is hard.

Chasing down a big vision is one part of entrepreneurship, but the value of an idea lies in its utility, which means anyone can build something, but it is seeking and finding those early adopters and customers willing to engage with you, test and provide feedback on your product or service, and place their trust in you at your earliest stages that bring the real opportunity. A business is nothing without customers.

It’s also about the amazing people in the team who show up day to day and do the real work - who move fast, shift gear, and do a lot with a little to build on that business opportunity - who obsess about customer value, who roll up their sleeves, and who bit by bit land the bricks of the sustainable, repeatable, scalable pathway forward that makes a small company take giant leaps forward.

2022 is going to be a very BIG year for as we scale to 100,000+ young people across Australia and work with amazing education impact partners 🙏🏼 to provide equity of opportunity to indigenous, remote, rule, regional and low SES students.

We might not have changed the world just yet (!), but perseverance, humanity, laughter, smarts and skills are full to bursting in the Future Amp tank. ✨👊🏽

We are ready to keep on making opportunities, and to learning as we build together.

You know who you are, and I am so so lucky to be learning - and doing - alongside you all. ▶️ ✨✨✨🌏

16/11/2021

New episode Human Cogs] 🎙🎧🧡
LISTEN NOW .podcasts ▶️

On an ordinary, blue-skied day in August 2018, Craig Hopper woke up living the dream, got ready for the day, kissed his three kids goodbye and went off to work. 

Meanwhile, his wife dropped their youngest at school, and set off as a fit 46-year-old on her regular morning run.🏃🏻‍♀️

What happened next changed their lives forever. Craig’s wife suffered a massive heart attack, and was found by a passing cyclist unresponsive, unconscious and without a pulse.

It took 24 hours to get her heart started again, 10 days in a coma, 7 operations and 10 weeks in hospital before she was finally able to return home to the family, with a brain injury.

While this is her story, it is also the story of how Craig as her life partner became an instant carer to four dependents, found a way to adjust to this complex new normal, and is now still finding a way to navigate the difficult journey through hope to grief and beyond.

In this episode of Human Cogs] Craig generously shares his beautiful insights on his family’s journey, the healing magic of talking, and the unexpected power of being able to ask for help.🙏🏼

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE NOW 🎙✨▶️ on     or via our website LINK IN BIO 🔝

✖️✖️

16/11/2021

This week is Transgender Awareness Week - when people and their allies take action to bring attention to the community by educating the public about who transgender people are, sharing stories and lived experiences, and advancing advocacy around the issues of prejudice, discrimination and violence that affect the transgender community.

It’s a great week to tune into the important and courageous conversations and I have had on .cogs about the experience - thank you again to amazing guests and for sharing so candidly. 🎙✨▶️

LISTEN to .cogs or whenever you get your podcasts.

11/11/2021

Thank you to everybody who has reached out since the Rachael Neumann episode went live on Human Cogs]] 🙏🏼 We really love hearing your thoughts and stories.

Rachael’s generous honesty about the chapters of her life, what’s she’s coming to terms with and where she’s at were real, raw and relatable - and I think tapped the seams of the lived universal human experience of us all.

The truth is that we are all taking in signals, sentiments and stories from those who surround us, every day - conscious or not.

We bring this into our own spheres. It can shape us. Make us. Break us. We are connected. And we are the sum of everything we encounter.

So creating enough space for reflection, synthesis, deep learning, truth telling, wisdom sharing, struggle, doubt, questioning, searching, striving (and sometimes not thriving) - are all part of the vast experience of being human, and tumbling through the beautiful messiness of our lives day to day.

I hope that through these authentic conversations on Human Cogs]], we can continue to invite you to go a level deeper, under the outer skin, to the layers not seen and chapters not read. To the soulful seams and powerful human stories that prompt us all to examine ourselves, our relationships, our choices, and the world around us.

And really, what matters more than that in a lived life?

Thanks so much for listening, being part of our community, and for sharing with us. 🙏🏼

Human Cogs]] is available on or wherever you get your podcasts. ✨🎧
Produced by .

09/11/2021

There are some conversations that take the air out of the room.

This was one of them.

You mightn’t know Rachael Neumann, but if you did, you’d know she is a force in the and ecosystem in Australia and beyond, and would be completely blown away by her leadership, indomitable momentum and genuine warmth and humanity. 

I’m fortunate enough to co-invest with Rachael in and we worked alongside each other at Telstra for a while, so I’ve seen her talent and drive close up and in full flight - leading teams, brokering deals, breaking new ground.

But in this conversation on Human Cogs] and I were keen to get under the skin to sit inside Rachael's real world for a bit, and understand who the human is behind her outsized and phenomenal trajectory.🌎▶️

What Rachael shared is raw and real, and speaks to anyone who is striving to be a leader and meet the relentless demands and impossible excellence bar they set for themselves.

A textbook high achiever who got a sports scholarship to (and two Masters degrees in the time that most people get one!), Rachael admits that for all her incredible successes her fierce ambition based on growth and acquisition at all costs has often come at the very real human cost of her not being able to let herself fully experience fun, levity and real joy.

Rachael shares the moment that her life coach says: “Wow. It must be really hard to work for you, but I bet it’s even harder to be you.” 

There is so much in this conversation that we can all learn from, but at its very core it’s a powerful toolkit of advice for everyone about how to give yourself permission, time and space to just breathe, be who you are, lead from where you are, and not continue to be complicit in the adverse conditions you create for yourself.

Rachael - Thank you so much for so generously sharing your story, turning over your life stones, and unearthing your untold wisdom in this chat. You rock.

LISTEN NOW Human Cogs] or via LINK IN BIO 👆🏽 or wherever you get your podcasts.

www.HumanCogs.com

06/11/2021

Love this. Live for people like this. 🥁❤️

05/11/2021

Life’s too short for same-old websites.

It was so great working with the talented design team✨superstars to bring my work and world to life in a brand new website, pumped with animated colour, story and joy :) 🥂

Head to madeleinegrummet.com or click link in bio to check it out. 👆🏽⬆️

Big thanks to Yang, Neil + team 🙏🏼▶️🌏

29/10/2021

Yep. Pretty close to relinquishing my Australian Citizenship. Can’t get much worse than this barbaric, shouty, unremarkable boffin and ridiculously poor excuse for a ‘leader’…

28/10/2021

Someone sent me this recently. And it’s so so true.

Even in these past months - pandemic life whacks aside 😳🦠 - those sliding doors and once-in-a-lifetime moments and meetings with our utter mortality have irrevocably changed or blown apart the lives (+ loves) of so many people in our fold.

Our beautiful fragility is our blessing and our curse, our doing and undoing, and it’s worth remembering that as we step out into this new so-called normal.

S**t will surely come our way, from sideways and on the most ordinary of days. It’s what will floor us, make us, shape us and scar us.

But it’s what we do with it and learn from it that matters most. 🙏🏼▶️
cogs

21/10/2021

The garden is a metaphor for our lockdown lives.

We’ve just let it all go, surrendered to its shape and form, learned to unnotice its mess and tangle in amongst the tumble of our lockdown days.

It is now wild, surprising - an alchemy of strange soft grasses, rogue weeds and scores of dandelions bobbing their big heads up into the blinking light of day.

One of our girls went out to lie on it at 4pm yesterday, still in her pyjamas, eating from a jar. “It’s like a meadow”, she said. “Like wild country grass.”

Like us. Back to ourselves in this beautiful mess of unmade beds and strange new rhythms and clothes without buttons.

Raw and opened out to what’s inside us and around us; growing sprouts and shoots in ways we didn’t know we could, and only because we’re not being repeatedly mowed down by the relentless rhythms and banal maintenance of the everyday world we left behind.

Yes, it’s been hard, too. The undone. The unsaid. The unmet milestones. The endless months of job losses, curfews, home school, isolation, existential dread - the languished lives of us all, caught in some sort of strange liminality, temporarily suspended, momentum stalled.

But we still grew. Somehow. Despite.

And I suspect that later, with the pandemic far behind us like a fading day, we will remember this pause, seek its sheltering and our togetherness in time.

We might even miss this collective jolt. Yearn to remember what it taught us so we don’t forget the learnings too soon.

But for now, I’m watching the clock. 21 minutes to go. ⏰

It’s time to emerge again. Messier, wiser, slower - and ready to bloom. 🌸