I had no idea June would look like this when the year began. I, like so many people, smiled at the imagery of the 1920’s Jazz Era meeting modern society and thought this would be a fun year, full of joyful odes to a century past.

In some ways, it has been joyful; but I think we can all agree that the challenge laid before us with a global pandemic was a challenge like nothing we had seen before. It has been difficult.

A few weeks ago, I remembered the concept of “stasis” from high school chemistry. Granted, it has been awhile since I stood at a lab table, but I remember learning that stasis is when everything ceases to give off energy and a calm settle over the entire closed system.

Stasis can be thought of as a negative situation, because we are so used to treating activity and movement like it is a goal in and of itself. However, if we stop considering activity to be a goal and just settle into a calm retreat from the busyness of life, then stasis becomes a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

We cannot understand delight if we are never disappointed; we do not recognize love without having felt apathy; we are not capable of understanding peace if we have not felt anger… so, too, we cannot appreciate activity if we have not ever been settled at stasis. As life begins to shift into a faster gear, as we slowly return to something resembling the “before” of the pandemic, that calming sense of just being at home with no pressure to be anywhere at all except at home will be valuable to us all.

My friend, I hope you find a balance as the days bring healing and the world turns outside again. The world is full of rich experiences, but they are made sweeter for having sat in calm silence, for having found stasis.

To life!
Gino Pezzani