Reflection of 2020 | #ThursdayThoughts
Where should I start? I often ask myself this question while gathering my thoughts. What seemed to be a regular day on December 31st, 2019 proved to be the start of something unforeseen. Like any other New Year’s Eve day, I intended to go to church first and then figure out the rest of my day. So I got ready and went to church as planned. While I don’t fully remember the entire sermon, I do recall the focus point being “perfect vision, clarity”. The year 2020 was the year we all expected clarity and perfect vision. A year we anticipated precise directives and everything to be on point. I too surely had that burning energy of hope and determination for the year ahead. But like a nightmare, life started falling apart in a span of a couple months. Covid-19, something no one anticipated.
I remember earlier that year before different government restrictions were enforced, my wife and I went out for date night. We went from enjoying a nice dinner to bar hopping and just having fun. It was a great day and we were even lightly joking about people who clearly looked stressed out while also noticing how some places were just not packed as usual. We could sense people being on edge, “high alert” and with a heavy fear of the unknown. But like some others, we really didn’t expect things to go downhill that quickly. Before we knew it, the world we once knew became a whole lot different.
Mandatory masks and social distancing became the new norms. Slowly but surely things around us began spiraling out of control with numbers skyrocketing. I kept telling myself this will not be over soon. I started thinking about the beginning of the year and the hope we all had, the slogan we all chanted,”20/20” perfect vision and a light went on in my mind. We all want clarity, precision and perfect vision, but these can only occur when we are standing still. It is hard to see what is underneath a body of water, while we are in constant motion. For some reason, I believe things needed to stop for us to start evaluating what matters the most for us. No doubt that 2020 was a very challenging year, many were affected, and many people died. But if you are reading this and you have a roof over your head, you take a couple seconds to decide what to wear for that day or you have the luxury to choose what you don’t like in your fridge, news flash you’ve got more than enough to be grateful for!
As we get ready with all kinds of resolutions and plans for this new year, we must remember the lessons that 2020 taught us. What matters the most? What is important to us? Yes, it was a challenging year, but let’s all have hope that 2021 will be a better year, let’s all have hope for a better and brighter future and let’s all remember that life is based on the lens we decide to use when we are looking into different situations. The future is bright but we must believe and act on it.