I know it’s easy to throw around the term “new normal” because it seems like the best way to describe what we’re experiencing amid the COVID-19 global pandemic. I think we describe it this way in order to feel like we have some measure of control while also trying to normalize it and make a little less scary. It’s used for the right reasons, but it isn’t really accurate. This isn’t the “new” anything.

We’re in a state of transition from one place to another. We don’t know how close we are to when the dust will settle, revealing what things will look like over the long term. And, though that might seem scary–like walking in the darkness–morning will ultimately come and the sun will light our path forward.

This has been such a challenging time for so many. And there has been nothing normal about the loss and chaos we’ve experienced. I can’t begin to know what it’s like to lose anyone to COVID or to any other circumstance during this un-normal of times. But I know of people who have. It’s only by holding on to those we love, our passions and hopes that can keep us steady enough to move from what is happening now to some version of normal in the future. Whatever that looks like, it won’t look exactly like it is now.

I would caution anyone against using the “new normal” to describe what we’re going through. I think it gives too much power to the unknown. (Maybe “for the time being,” “right now,” or “amid the pandemic.”) Certainly, there are aspects of what we’re doing now that might follow us into our future (physical distancing, face masks in crowded places), but once we’re through the worst of this and the economy’s engine begins sputtering again, we’ll be better prepared–as a people and as a planet–to deal with whatever challenges arise again on a global scale. Only then, we’ll have had the benefit of this experience. We won’t be walking in the dark, but in the early light of dawn.