A few years back, a friend was visiting his elderly grandmother while she was in a nursing facility.

Dave, we'll call him, walked in as his grandmother's eyes were wide as dinner plates.

Grandma, what's going on? he asked, as she couldn't take her gaze from the television.

Turning his attention to the TV, he soon realized why his grandmother was so overcome by panic.

What she thought she was watching was the local news, although what she was really watching was

War of the Worlds.

Oof, poor thing. It took him quite some time to calm her down and convince her.

It was a movie loosely based on the novel by H.D. Wells and wasn't, in fact, her evening

news program. I must confess, though, this past year has had its

moments. Not a single person hasn't been affected by COVID-19 in one way or another. Yesterday,

my family and I, we were returning from a hike in the mountains and past a farmer selling

produce at a roadside pop-up market. A stocky, broad-shouldered

gentleman, probably in his early 70s, donned with a straw hat, long-sleeved flannel, and

a face mask. Never and all his years, I told my wife, would he or many of us expect a facial covering

to be just another thing you put on before you walk out the door, like a jacket or like you're

carrying an umbrella?

And while guidelines and regulations continue to ease, one thing that may not be so quick to ease are our nerves

in returning to what the every day will be like in the weeks, months, years to come.

We've all been sitting, not moving for so long now in this new normal, it's almost difficult to remember any other way.

Like a baby beginning to explore the world past a sandbox, so are we looking to take our first

tentative steps back into society into this new world. For some, they'll go from zero to 100.

No looking back. Look out.

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