2020 – My Take

 

The year ends tonight. Such an adventure. Stalked by Covid-19. A trip to NYC in March when ignorance, or denial, were bliss. Reliance on Zoom meetings recovery,  medical care and family get-togethers. A cancelled, (postponed),family reunion. The births of new family members. The awareness (existence) of family members we were unaware of until now—and them us. The deaths of those we loved. Graduations in virtual ceremonies. Living alone or in groups more hours and days than before—loneliness and altered boundaries. Work from home. Retirements. Lost jobs. Learning new ways to be, to do, and to let go. More prayer than before for some. More stress for just about all of us. Vacations with care, or stay at home holidays. Writing, reading, quilting, walking, running, bicycling, sleeping, learning, and sharing. Telling stories old and new and thanking God more than ever, or not. Giving more of ourselves. Accepting more help than we believed we could tolerate, or need. Changing minds around our certainties. Gaining and losing weight. Drinking more, or less alcohol. Social Media – OMG! Purchasing, selling, and building homes. Painting rooms. Fixing stairwells and this or that. Quarantining. Missing people and hugs with aching sorrow. Commemorating and burying our dead – Grief. Home schooling. Cursing politicians. Losing ourselves in streaming television series. Searching for ‘safe’ outdoor activities endlessly. Postponing and forgetting haircuts altogether. Ordering groceries for delivery from super markets and observing directional arrows in aisles (or not) when brave enough to food shop. Dying for specific dishes from favorite restaurants that we feared may prove light years away forever. Believing for moments, or days, that we were alone and discovering that we had legions of company. Trying to recall what life was really like before pandemic. Worrying what it would be after. Trusting more, or less. Making new friends continents away. Loving our little ones with special focus. Affirming love. Chasing the positive. Deepening intimacies. Pelotons, treadmills, Nordic Tracks, and myriad exercisers. Couches and comfy chairs we overused. Feeling overwhelmed by our differences and overjoyed at marvelous acts of loving kindness and generosity. Holding fast to friendships that we feared would fray. Letting others go. Seeing, and not. Believing, and not. Experiencing more days of standing at the precipice—some definition of abyss--than we ever thought possible.

 

And still we are here.

 

Please feel free to take a shot at your experiences of 2020. And I ask, no fighting.

 

You are love and you are loved.

 

Thank you.