Well, here we are, just through a busy holiday season for some and in a new year, still wearing masks.

It feels as if we are running in a track and field event and Covid is in the lineup. Everyone is prepared. Set on our starting blocks. The starter raises the pistol. Covid “jumps the gun.” Once again.

Now we have to let go and regroup our energy. We have to focus on going forward, and we will because we are doing this together.

We have all faced the uncertainty of the past two years. We have had false starts and learned to live with them. We have all become experienced at letting go. Feelings may run high and strong in these times, requiring us to let go over and over.

Letting go doesn’t mean “getting over it”; many times it means coming to peace with it. Whatever it is in your life. One way to peace is to take time to see our relationship with all the magnificence of our earth.

We all live on the same earth, under the same moon. Writer-philosopher Alan Watts said, “You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.”

We, individually, are a part of the whole shebang. The sunshine on our shoulders, the wind blowing soft against our skin, the intensity of the raucous ocean with its furious and blustery strength are all part of this magnificent universe, and so are we.

What we do, how we see ourselves in relationship to all life, matters.

Life is not a race to the finish. We can treat it like a walk in the park or a stroll on the beach. Let’s look at each other as parts of the same universe, letting go, regrouping and attempting to move forward.

We will get through this together.

The Rev. Linda McNamar is a Laguna Woods Village resident.