At the end of this strange, dark year of 2020, I wish you light. 

I thank everyone who has gifted me with light…the nurse who took the time to tell me how reading my Mercies of the Fallen had eased her out of her work in the middle of a pandemic to enjoy a love story held together by the notes of its hero’s penny whistle…

To my family for opening my horizons by sending images of dogs frolicking on the Oregon shore and a baby reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? in sun-kissed California. 

To my Vermont community, for flooding an ancestors mailbox with cards to celebrate her 100th birthday, and for for lighting up our square in defiance of death itself.

Light a candle. Be the light. We’ll get through this, together.