When I look back on the past year, it was full of nightmares. It shattered our hearts and lives. We are tactile beings, expressing love by touch. “Social distance, wear masks.” Let your eyes mirror love. Loss. A mother keening for a child forever gone. We feel we are sinking into a morass of impenetrable darkness. Tears, so many tears. South Africa is overshadowed by desperation. The homeless, the poor, their bellies gnawed by relentless hunger. A pandemic that has crippled a universe.

When I look forward, I am filled with hope. To lose hope is not to rise again. The sun shines in an azure sky. The shadows that darkened our lives are no more. We can dance. We can sing. Come, my beloved, I can embrace you. The mask that shielded my smiling mouth is no more. A chorus of full-throated birds sing tunes of rejoicing. I no longer look back to that impenetrable black of yesteryear. Life is joyous. Life is renewed.