With Summer, Comes HOPE.

School is out, restrictions have been lifted, the temperature is
HOT and the sun seems to shine a bit brighter for many of us after a very difficult sixteen months of the pandemic.  With the reckoning of our countries’ past and present treatment of Indigenous people, as well as People of Colour, cultural and religious groups being targeted for violence, it has been a heavy, sad time for many. 

We have been through a lot.  Some more than others.  The divisiveness has been fueled by our inability to connect, by our fear and anger.  Now, it is time to open up to the possibilities that hope can bring. We need hope now more than ever!

Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant revisited a concept that helps perfectly describe the “joy we have been missing”, as “Collective Effervescence”.  First coined by Émile Durkheim just prior to WW1 and the Spanish Flu to describe the “sense of energy and harmony people feel in a group around a shared purpose”.  Remember that last concert, sports event, or communal experience and how that felt? It almost feels strange to think it is all becoming possible again.

However, we are all going to move at a different pace throughout this transition period from isolation and restrictions to fully participating (unmasked!) out in the community during this time, and that is okay.  Give yourself grace and provide that same compassion to others who might be at a different point.  There is no right or wrong, only in how we treat ourselves and others as we relearn our way in the world again.