2021 could be the year that defines the future of humanity and tests what matters to us the most. The beginning of the new year is usually a symbolic time in our lives. We are looking into the future with renewed resolutions and plans for transformation. Although focusing on the future is the right attitude, this year might be a little different since some of us are also looking into the past and yearning for what we had prior to the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. 2020 gave us a rare opportunity to appreciate one of the most important conditions for being a human: our interdependence. We became acutely aware of the need for close, personal relationships and the need for physical contact that we perhaps took for granted before then. It reminded us of how we "connect" with one another on a much deeper level by a hug or even just a simple handshake. It was a unique position to be in, one that doesn't happen very often. It was also a grand opportunity for us to shift our focus to what matters the most: the inherent love for life and the essential need to be connected to one another.

My hope is that the fog of confusion that stemmed from the frustration of dealing with the challenges that COVID-19 presented evaporates. We need to focus on and pay closer attention to the lessons of 2020 about the importance of love and the elevation of the human spirit through hope. I know this sounds a little cliche, but I hope we have realized how much we need each other! We need each other not only to collaborate and work tirelessly to make a vaccine. Not just to provide care to one another when we need medicine or a breathing machine. But also remember the importance of showing how much we care by being there for one another when needed. We should hold each other's hands more often, pad one another on the shoulder more, and embrace the beauty of human interconnectedness when we can.

I would like to end this with a famous poem by Tich Nhat Hanh since it came to my mind as I started writing this piece. It's called "Please call me by my true names." It explains so beautifully how we all need each other and how we are truly different pieces of the same interconnected tapestry.

Be well,
Siamak

Don't say that I will depart tomorrow— even today I am still arriving.

Look deeply: every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, learning to sing in my new nest, to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.