I celebrate a number of positive unintended consequences of the forced slow down due to covid-19, all of which can be filed under strengthened life skills. Three years ago I got my drivers license, rather late in life because as a NYC kid I had freedom to move without a car. Since getting my license I had not driven that much and fear and trepidation about driving crept back into me. Being upstate through the pandemic, I am now a much more confident driver and know I can get myself and my family anywhere we need to go. It is amazing how empowered it makes me feel and I’m grateful for this time I’ve had to practice and build my confidence behind the wheel. Working in the arts, I regularly operate within an environment of uncertainty and also within a space of wonder, inquiry and creation. Facing deeper pandemic level uncertainty, I dove into growing my own food utilizing the privilege of access to land, time and all the energy I’d normally be investing in theater projects. I cut new garden ground, doubling the size of our annual summer vegetable garden and started seeds inside. Previously I only had experience with directly sowing seeds in the earth. I got to work closely with my mother to design the garden, rotating our “crops” from where we planted last year & giving everything more space than previous years. We followed the moon phases for best planting days and it all felt like a wonderful experiment. Not having a grow light for the seeds I started, I became devoted to moving my seedlings outside into the sun on warm days & back inside once the sun went down. This seedling stewardship deeply connected me to the daily movement of the sun, the circadian rhythms of our world. Between this and the grounding of the dirt, the earth, my workaholic never stop moving mind got quiet and calm. No matter what happens next, I will always make time to keep my hands in the dirt with respect for the delicate wonders of photosynthesis. Cheers for these bright spots: driving and growing!