It was a strange year, wasn’t it?
Many things may have happened to you–a few too many.
Or maybe nothing happened to you–you’ve postponed your plans, canceled your trips, put your dreams on hold.
Maybe your life has really come to a halt this way.
Still, was it a bad year if you’re here reading this?
It’s a rainy Christmas day here–not a snowflake in sight.
But I can’t feel down about it.
This Christmas, in addition to the usual presents, Santa also brought people around the world some of the first COVID-19 vaccines.
Not just vaccines, but the hope of life resumed.
When people put their minds together, the results can be amazing.
We may be a destructive, selfish, complicated species–but we’re great at working together when we have to.
For me personally this year hasn’t been too bad.
I made friends in unexpected places and became in many ways a better version of myself than I have been before.
I’ve become more social too–without even leaving my house.
Who would have thought I needed a pandemic for that to happen?
I like to think I finally learned to stop blaming others or myself for things that go wrong.
Because sometimes things go wrong and it’s not anyone’s fault.
Chaos and disorder are built into the fabric of life, it permeates every design and structure, natural or man-made.
Accepting our ignorance and smallness, isn’t that the first step to growing stronger?
Many people will probably have a long list of New Year resolutions this year.
Many people will hope that with the vaccine out there, life will become maskless sometime next year.
Maybe that will happen. Or maybe it will take longer than that.
Maybe there will be other waves, other strains, other mishaps.
After all, the state of the environment is probably an ever bigger issue that this virus.
Like Shakespeare wrote a long, long time ago, “The worst is not so long as you can say ‘This is the worst.'”
Will you still be making a list of resolutions this year?
I will.
I may not wish to travel just yet, but there are so many other things we can do today without even leaving our homes.
That’s what’s great about out day and each.
We each live in a small kingdom of information and easy communication–a friend is only an email or phone call away.
It may not be the same as face to face interaction, but it’s so much better than previous generations had during pandemics.
We can wish for a better year for sure, and maybe we will get it.
Many of you deserve it.
But even better perhaps, let’s wish for a better version of ourselves.
I’ll sure try to use what I have the best way I can and in a way that’s good for others too.
Will it be a happy new year?
It remains to be seen.
But it will be a new year, and that means the opportunity to create new plans, build new dreams, nurture new hopes–in short, create a better version of ourselves, any way we can.
Image (c) The Painted Clock Painting Classes
boy with a hat 
2020 was not a good year for me. I can only hope that the next one will be better – much better. Did I grow as a person? I’m not sure… I did become more reclusive, which is probably not the best thing. I am still healthy though, as is the rest of my family, which is something to be thankful for.