Hi everyone!
Happy 2021.
We made it. Look what we did, in spite of all that was against us.
I've found myself searching for some bits of wisdom to make sense of what just happened, but it's still too close. We are still in it. Symbolically though, I'll embrace the possibility that awaits with the turn of a calendar.
Our son Stellan just read the sobering COVID-19 count from the newspaper today, with 1.8M deaths worldwide. and more than 342,000 in the US. It's a strange breakfast ritual for him that maybe helps a 9-year-old wrap his head around what's unfolded. My children with regularity talk about the killing of George Floyd and the racial unrest that unfolded in our city and continues to rage nationwide. We've struggled with distance learning so much. Stellan has not been inside a school since last March.
But look what you did, we remind him. Look at your resilience. We've all turned corners of our homes into classrooms, Zoomed from every room with work and school blurring under one roof. Muted and unmuted the noise from a polarizing election.
In quarantine, we lost our sanity, we missed our people, but within four walls, many of us fell in love with our families all over again too. We did everything and nothing, while from under our masks, we watched the world crumble, and in many ways, be put back together.
A vaccine. New priorities. A stronger sense of resilience. Slowing down in our awakening.
We are living on a fault line, but perhaps we move forward by creating space to live in both the light and the darkness. My own reminder came in the form of a handmade Christmas card from Stellan, who unknowingly gave me the wisdom I was searching for after all.
“We will always be thankful,” he wrote. “We will never give up hope.”
I had the opportunity to freelance at KARE 11 this past week and it was cathartic to share this story about the takeaways from 2020.
I interviewed Dr. Anna Roth, a holistic psychologist I follow on Instagram and have always admired from afar. It was so nice to meet her and she has such wisdom and grounding energy to share. Moral of the story from Dr. Anna: don't feel any pressure to come up with some big revelation about what it all means. Give yourself the grace and space to process and time will unearth conclusions and shifts.
That hope that Stellan wrote in his handmade card, Dr. Roth reminded me that as 2021 begins, you cannot forget the power of hope, even if you hold onto it ever so lightly.
Here's the link to the KARE 11 video and article that may help as you mull over this past year.
Much love and peace,
Lindsey
