I shot this photo during our first snow fall and something about the gate and the lock seemed significant. Yet, as winter persisted, the image seemed to suggest to me that suffering from a chronic illness might resemble being caught behind the gate inside of a forever winter, while the healthy stroll free through eternal spring. At the thought, I shook my head, resentment blooming. I tried to feel and move on. I also recalled sayings from recent podcasts and audio books such

Years ago, I volunteered briefly at a women’s shelter. One of the exercises I had the women do was erasure poetry. We took pages from old books and scratched out words until a poem would emerge from the words we kept. FIND YOUR SKY was one of my poems. Or, its title. The three words became a mantra. A way for me to hold onto beauty in the midst of chaos. Little did I know then that a pandemic would hit us, that I would catch Covid in 2023 and battle Long Covid for years. On s