As Christmas loomed closer, and it appeared we would have another holiday stuck in our homes, with little interaction, the horrors of the year fell on everyone’s head.
At a family gathering, small as it was, we had a toast – “Here’s hoping next Christmas is better.” “Let’s hope 2021 isn’t so bad.” “Things can’t get worse.”
Thing is, we were sitting in a warm house, lit with Christmas lights, surrounded by gifts, with full bellies. Would we rather have been with large groups of family? Of course! Are we sad that we are going to miss Grandma this year? Absolutely. But really – looking back, was 2020 really so awful?
BEFORE I GET SLAMMED, please understand that for some people, the year was, in fact, horrible. Don’t get me wrong. I know people suffered this year. Many people lost jobs, families, homes, businesses, and don’t get me started on how far behind the kids are going to be in school.
I will never even begin to criticize someone else’s pain – if you lost a family member, went to the hospital, lost your job, or had any one of a myriad of other difficult things happen to you this year, including your health being affected in some way, I am truly sorry, and by all means, feel your anger and disgust at this year, and breathe a sigh of relief at 2020 ending – as well as a hope that 2021 is better (I kind of treated the last ½ of 2002 like that, for various reasons).
My point is that this is my personal journey. My own personal experience, which I will not compare either positively or negatively with anyone else’s personal experience. In my world, I, personally, do not feel that the entire year was horrible. In fact, the events of 2020 actually created some positive situations that may not have happened otherwise. While I am sorry that we are where we are, I wonder if I’d have some of these things without a pandemic.
At 60 years old, I don’t know how many years I have left. I’m not sure writing one off completely as a waste as an efficient or economical use of my time, and I don’t know that I feel comfortable looking aback on 2020 to state that nothing good happened.
So, for this week, I am going to concentrate on the positive. Every blog I write this week focus on something that happened in 2020 for which I can be joyful. For one thing, I’ll be joyful if I can get more than one blog out this week.
So how do we start? How was Christmas, after all?
This blog is going to be short, because to add to it any of the joyful things I want to discuss would make it too long, and I don’t really want to take attention away from them in and of themselves. But just in general, self-awareness, closeness to family, even something simple as a new Christmas tree. All of these things have happened this year, and I am happy for all of them.
I will end this blog with one thing that I truly believe has been the catalyst of all the rest. Regardless of the issues that are involved with working for Rutgers University, as administrative staff, Human Resources has allowed me to work from home since March. This has brought with it many inconveniences, and the other “me” employees often discuss during Zoom calls how difficult it is to complete some tasks. At the same time, we also acknowledge and appreciate the benefit this has provided us, the very least of which being our safety.
That being said, much of what has happened in my life since the pandemic would not have, had we not been stuck at home. So, it would make no sense to go into this without first acknowledging that I had the opportunity to develop relationships – with myself, my family, my pets, my environment, and my world – as a result of the wise decision of my employer to keep us home. My ability to telecommute has made dealing with many of the issues surrounding this pandemic much easier than it could have been.
Much has changed since January 1. Some of it is good, some of it not so good, but no matter what, I have lived 365 days (of course, this all had to happen during a Leap Year). And in those 365 days, there are things that happened that I will forever remember and appreciate.
So, this is #1 of whatever number it ends up being by the end of the week. Either way, as we start to say goodbye to 2020, I hope you will all join me in having hope and peace in 2021.
Don’t take my word for it – look it up yourself.
Remember Grandma Lili loves you.
