“After the wind stops I see a flower falling. Because of the singing bird I find the mountain calmness.”

Normally I would not understand a Zen kōan so easily but this one instantly hit home.

As the lockdown restrictions ease and slowly the freedoms I took for granted, return, it is invoking a sense of adventure and also finding a calmness that was always there!

"On a blank sheet of paper, draw or paint your colorful dream for a new world."

When I sat down with my colors, I realized I didn't even allow myself the freedom to choose my own colors. As I challenged my own resistances to paint the sky whichever color I wanted, to paint the mountain whichever color I wanted, it led to opening up of new possibilities and breaking up of a fear to go against the assumed "should"s I live in.