Every citizen of the World is thinking in unison. Just as much as our bodies are plagued, so too are our minds. If you are terrified of losing the people you love, or of complete isolation, or of financial precarity, or all of the above, it is clear that you are not alone. For the first time in perhaps all of history, the people of the planet are wholly unified in thought and in spirit. So even though it might be pouring rain, bits of sunlight crack through the thick, bulbous clouds. If you look close enough, you can see the emerging rainbows, each with their pots of gold by their seemingly infinite bookends.

Yes, it is so difficult to stay positive right now. I cannot do it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try to. As I am sure you have heard a million times over, keeping your mind occupied is helpful in getting through the various waves of anxiety and depression we will all surely experience throughout this long and arduous global journey. But there are times when nothing can keep the mind occupied, and so we must think and we must feel. In those times, the best tool that we can all access is our own creativity. Creation blossoms when we allow ourselves to feel.

It has taken me a few days to sit down and write something. I didn’t know what to say and I felt that everything had already been said. I sat on my couch for hours crying and hoping that my favorite people would keep themselves alive. I drank and drank until my vision clouded. I figured that my mind’s eye would go blind as well. It did not. I deleted social media and tried to read a book, but the first paragraph I read was a hypothetical about the apocalypse. I tried to occupy my mind and to ignore what I was feeling, but in the end, I realized that succumbing to these feelings would be my only way out. So here I am, writing something to share with you. After all, The Aléatoire is supposed to be unfiltered and 100% pulp. If you too would like to share any work or thoughts related to this oddly universal experience, please do send it along to aleatoiremag@gmail.com

We all have a lot of time on our hands to think, and it’s good to let it out in whatever medium helps us all the most.