This year hasn’t gone as planned. I mean, did you predict a global pandemic, financial depression, and historic social uprising?? No matter how turbulent this time period has been, I’m thankful we will not be emerging from 2020 the same people we were at the beginning of the new decade.

This quick and rapid shift in daily life due to the pandemic has brought many of our values into clearer focus—from who we keep as friends to how we have hard conversations with those closest to us. I don’t know about you, but there is a lot about 2020 that will stay with me forever, and intentionally processing shifts in ourselves and in our communities begins with reflection. 

It’s a soft word, often used passively, but never fully active. Yet when I started to think about what reflection means and the feeling it evokes, I realized I tend to avoid reflection because I am afraid.

I’m afraid to confront who I may be, what I may lose, how I may feel—all things one could say are essential to understanding the fleeting nature of our human experience. Perhaps the avoidance of reflection is just our way of attempting to maintain control in a world that is increasingly flexing its ability to throw curveball after curveball.

If setting aside time for reflection is an essential part of living, is there a better way to incorporate the practice into our daily lives? Can we use reflection to change our relationship with the past? Can setting aside time for reflection help us better understand our communities, our relationships, our careers, and ourselves? Can reflection help us become more in tune with our needs, our wants, and what’s required for our mental health?

If setting aside time for reflection is an essential part of living, is there a better way to incorporate the practice into our daily lives? . . . Can setting aside time for reflection help us better understand our communities, our relationships, our careers, and ourselves?

This month, our contributors will be writing about how to cultivate relationships that last, and ways to reflect that don’t require writing. They’ll be exploring the benefits of being open to learning new things, and the best lessons gleaned from past jobs. I’ll be writing about all the reasons to love and embrace (slightly) dated kitchens, and sharing an in-depth look at our design plans for our home. We can’t wait to share all of this and more with you in July.

I have questioned just about everything over the course of the past month, and the only thing I know for sure is that in order to face ourselves clearly through reflection, we have to be ready to embrace what we see as the truth of our humanity. We have to be willing to find compassion for our faults, both for ourselves and for those around us.

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Kate Arends

Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning how to play tennis and is forever testing the boundaries of her creative muscle. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.