There seems nothing to be said about 2020 that hasn’t already been said. But I really want to start the year acknowledging what has passed in the last months.
Personally, 2020 was really hard. On top of the pandemic there were numerous challenges at home. By December I was on the ropes.
We took time over the holidays to make some changes. We head into this New Year hopeful for better times all round. Although at the time of writing, here in England we sit, as do our national neighbours, in full lockdown yet again, with schools closed, we remain positive.
Covid hit close to home, and hit our loved ones hard. A very dear friend only just made it through. It will be months yet before she will be fully well again. Lockdown isn’t fun, but it is necessary. Staying home seems a small price to pay to protect the NHS and save lives. Too many lives have been lost, too many families decimated. It’s beyond heartbreaking. We all need to do our bit, however small.
All of which serves to highlight the significant privilege in which our family sits. Although we lost our business last year, we have our roof over our heads and food on our table. Our business was planned to close its doors this year due to changes in taxation impacting the market place. Dave now has a new job that is making him very happy and gives us security into the future. Just a few months earlier than planned. Not a bad thing at all.
The children have the capability to log into school work and learn in comfort and safety from home. Dave is safely working from home too.
We have very much to be grateful for and, if I’m honest, this new lockdown doesn’t change very much for us. We’ve been home with few exceptions since March. We are lucky to be able to be so.
I had a conversation with Kristin last year about how we cannot see the lessons that we are learning whilst we are in the middle of the learning process. I think the lessons will continue to come thick and fast for some time yet. But already I’ve know that collectively we need less than we thought, and that we can survive terrible challenges. We’ve seen that we can pull together, and that family and friends are absolutely everything.
I still despair of much of humanity. Racism, intolerance, greed, bigotry and downright stupidity (Covid deniers, I’m looking at you) is rife. However I remain hopeful that good will out. The will to sew PPE, support food banks, clap for the NHS support this thought. Seeing friends and neighbours pull together to support the vulnerable and less fortunate is humbling.
So, as we head into a New Year in which science will prevail even if common sense doesn’t, I’m wishing health, sanity, and hope to you and those you hold dear.
Evie – that picture says it all. Though I’ve seen this beautiful vista in many previous photos – oh, this one is heavy. (And btw, you TOTALLY understand the taupe!!!) I’m of a similar mind to you, unsurprisingly given that we have found each other in the vastness of the internet. Life is very strange, unknowable, Sometimes the drab becomes outright hard to handle, but Scott and I are safe and together and I pray for all of my family and friends that it stays that way for them too. With the climbing numbers everywhere, and the unwillingness of so many to simply sit down and stay home, well, my hope is at an ebb. Something recently occurred to me – and it’s given me a bit of a buzz: We really are living in a FASCINATING time in the history of humanity. I mean, in 700 years, they’ll be looking back on us like they did on the Black Death population. Between racial reset (may this come immediately), global pandemic and the fall of American democracy, there’s a lot to consider. We may be grim but we cannot be bored. At any rate, sending you all of my healthy, safe and calm vibes. We just need to see this through. That’s what they’ve done in every other historic situation. Ironically, sometimes looking back on things is even scarier than living through them (if one is very, very lucky) because hindsight is effing scary at the best of times. Kxoxo
I tell the children all the time that we are living through history in the making. Not all of it good, but their children will be taught about this in school.
We have much to be grateful for, but so many people could do so much more. The sense of entitlement is breathtaking in some quarters, as is the unbelievable stupidity of those we, in this house, call “flat earthers”…basically anyone who doesn’t follow the science.
Staying home and staying safe is such a privilege, it beggars belief that those who can refuse to do so.
And the fools in America who are destabilising a whole country based on the ramblings of a megalomaniacal satsuma really need to check themselves. You’d expect this nonsense in a third world dictatorship. Not 21st century America.