By Joyce Vance

Dear Reader,

We’ve got serious times and serious work ahead of us in 2022. We’ll need to take good care of ourselves to keep up. That will, of course, look different for each of us. A judge who is a Federalist Society member once told me he ran every day at lunch so he’d be able to serve on the bench for decades to come. My self-care looks a little different than that. I’ve been doing a lot of baking. The process is soothing and the results are worth it. As I write down my thoughts to share with you this week, I’ve got a plate full of still-warm chocolate chip cookies in front of me. I’m unapologetic about this self-indulgence.

I expected to feel a little more settled heading into 2022. I thought we’d be past the worst of the pandemic and watching the country rebuild with new protections for voting, infrastructure week accomplished (at long last) and a bit of realism as we approached the first anniversary of January 6. I was off the mark. We aren’t there yet and I’m a little cranky about 2022. But I’m eternally optimistic. I believe we can and will figure it out. I’m just ready for it to happen already. And for me personally, I’d like to recapture my old focus and ability to work in an efficient, linear fashion.