COVID

As we all try and make our path through life in the time of COVID, I have been simultaneously reflective and hair-on-fire panicked. Balancing home life and work life is always a challenge, but this is the supercharged FX version. In many ways the daily unity of all aspects of life is a lovely comforting feeling, with the family gathered at the kitchen table, noses in screens. I joke, but that's the rub, isn't it? This sense of unsettled, itchiness pervades our sacred and ordinary lives. I have the privilege to continue to work from home and my spouse, while on reduced hours, is still going in a few days a week. The kiddos are champions with the schooling program, but coordinating a day with one each, 1st, 4th, 6th, and 10th graders, is a *special* experience. I am baking a lot, eating a lot, attempting to push myself on developing new and/or improved skills in this now decidedly more digital reality.

I share all of this because I feel like most of my conversations start with a mutual check-in. OUr new COVID ritual that I find comforting. How are you doing? How are you handling this? Do you need anything? The question is always genuine and the space is always given for an honest download about not just the disaster of pragmatics, but the question is asked with genuine curiosity for really, truly, "How are you?" I am encouraged and heartened by these new ways and depths of connecting.

I am firmly in camp "we're going to be doing some version of this for a long time". Our entire structure has shifted and policy will have to adjust along with the new normal. At Sound Cultivation I am working first and foremost on seeking relief for cannabis industry members who are struggling. The celebration and relief of getting no pushback from the Governor's office on moving forward with designating cannabis as essential was short lived. We all have watched each stimulus package block relief to the industry. On the High Holy Holiday I left out my milk and cookies for Snoop and then joined in with Chronic Relief to enjoy some community and an opportunity to help raise some money for Feeding America. I am also looking forward to announcing the details for a new opportunity for small grants to individuals in the cannabis industry, so stay tuned.

While there is much to cope with in the immediate, looking forward to this November and beyond into the 2021 leg session we will be coping with both immediate needs and seeking ways to mitigate COVID's long term impact. In my conversations, issues like delivery and homegrow have been bubbling up as we see a future with more home time, meanwhile consumption lounges is not getting much discussion time. It will be interesting to watch developments in policy in these next 6 months.

Stay safe and healthy from my crew to yours!