As this 2020 is sliding in for home, I have been pondering the year, through the rear view mirror … which is how, I expect, most of us have been desiring to view this year.
This has been the year of the Coronavirus disease, resulting in memories of a year that leave a bad taste in one’s mouth (unless you had Covid-19 and lost your sense of taste).
- isolation
- toilet paper hoarding
- cancelled plans
- halted travel
- sanitizer
- online schooling
- working from home
- face masks
- cancelled arts, sporting and other entertainment
- cancelled plans
- cancelled parties
- closed businesses (some permanently)
- job losses
- illness (so some)
- death (sadly, also true for some)
And all of this on top of the non-Coronavirus struggles of life like racism, politics, riots, natural disasters, relationship struggles, ended marriages, illnesses and … murder hornets?!
This Covid Pandemic season has tested us in ways our communities have not been tested in a lifetime. This year with Covid-19 will be talked about in terms of the tough, the struggles, the hard stuff, the losses, the negative.
Yet, as I have been looking back at 2020, there have also been amazing, encouraging and uplifting aspects that have shown human kindness, strength, resilience and love. Truly the cream has risen to the top, as I look more closely at 2020.
- society is celebrating real community heroes … nurses, doctors, grocery store workers, those who work in senior’s care homes, those who work in daycares, preschools and schools and (add your own)
- we are learning to say than-you, for through our wants and needs, we are leaning appreciation and gratitude
- people have had opportunity to really get to know who lives under our own roofs
- hand crafts, baking, board games and puzzles have reemerged in our homes
- we opted, choose to stay connected through distanced meet-ups in parking lots with lawn chairs, outside windows of senior’s homes, Zoom meetings, FaceTime, live (online) church services and small groups, online games and even letter writing
- weddings still happened and were more intimate
- graduations occurred with great creativity
- we started noticing others
- we cleaned out our closet, basements and garages
- we got out in nature to exercise by biking, hiking, walking, running and (fill in your preference)
- we began to see that we are part of something bigger, that our actions can have affect on others … that staying home, wearing a mask are little things done with great love … for others.
2020 is coming to a close and it will go down in history as a pandemic year … but this coronavirus storm has also a year when we began to look at our jobs, businesses, education, shopping, needs … at our lives differently. Though we are all looking forward to returning to many of the good things that have been on pause this year, our new focus might not have us return to the rat race of before, maybe, just maybe we will begin to realize that there is more to life than what we had before …
itsawonderfilledlife 