It is close to three years since all of our lives were upended by the “it couldn’t happen here” pandemic. None of us could ever have imagined what this has been like or the permanent changes it has made in our lives and in our world.

While the virus has not left us, it is clear that most of us are resuming something that resembles “normal,” whatever that means. We are getting together, we are traveling, we are socializing, we are moving forward. Yet we do so with a little less blind assurance than we had before, aware that there are risks but more than willing to take them.

There is a sense of “school’s out” for the summer, that we have a freedom we’ve been longing for, a freedom we’ve been anxious to have. And while it is a relief, there is also a recognition of where we have been and what we have learned.

More than in any previous year I can remember, I’ve been invited to events that focus on starting the year off right, setting intentions, gathering energy and creating a vision. There is a kind of desperation to some of this, grabbing tightly onto being together and even more tightly onto the future, a future that has, at times over the past few years, not looked certain.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not casting aspersions on these events or ideas. I appreciate each of them and the opportunity to participate as I choose. But I cannot help but be struck by the context and the importance these intention-setting moments have right now.

I attended one of these events last week and have another ahead this weekend. I welcome the concentrated time to think about what the future holds and the ability we each have to manifest the future we desire.

After last week’s inspiring event, I woke up holding an image in my mind, an image that had come from a dream just before I awakened. I saw an enormous, warm light and, as I watched, it took human form, radiating light in all directions. I am not a big believer in symbols or omens or portents, but I felt warmed by that light and what it represented to me.

It’s an old, trite phrase to talk about “being the light” in someone’s life. But at this moment it feels to me as if we all need to find our own light. We’ve been isolated and enclosed. We’ve been anxious and afraid. We’ve been cautious and limited. Now is the time to allow ourselves to remember that we are, in each of our cores, filled with light, light that we can use to guide our steps, light that we can use to envision our dreams, light that we can use to fill our full hearts.