It goes without saying that our lives have all changed due to the pandemic. I long resisted the urge to compose a new work “inspired” by the events, but I really just couldn’t think of anything else when the Égide Duo asked me to write a new piece inspired by social events. As I pondered the piece, I found four short texts that were parallel to experiences I had during the pandemic and chose to base my movements on each of them. The first movement is about the general anxiety at the beginning of the pandemic. Kierkegaard’s epigram, “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom” was appropriate; though most of us still had quite a bit of freedom, those freedoms carried quite a lot of dizzying risk. The second movement is based on a Maya Angelou quote, “Bitterness is like a cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” The quote and movement reflect the fierce anger and helpless disappointment I felt as I watched people die needlessly due to the failings of our top officials. Movement three explores the idea of hope and is based on an Alfred Tennyson excerpt: “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’”. The final movement is an expression of joy that celebrates the recovery of our lives as we remember all of the pain and begin to recover from the pandemic. This is well-expressed in the Joseph Campbell quote, “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.”