2020 is done and gone and much like every year, when January 1st rolls around, we humans conjure up dozens of reasons why the New Year will be better. Why not? The promise of a new year is nothing less than miraculous. When I think of those who won’t be with us in 2021, this New Year is feeling particularly sacred.
So many friends have asked, “what are you glad to say goodbye to from 2020.” At first, my responses came tumbling out but after a bit, I found myself wondering if all those 2020 ‘challenges’ should be abandoned or tossed into the fire or simply erased from my memory? Maybe. But as my mind and responses paused, I thought about the gifts that 2020 left behind.
I get queasy when folks try to convince me that challenges are just opportunities in disguise. I don’t need a disguise to know an opportunity when I see it and right or wrong, the challenges of 2020 weren’t opportunities. They were difficult, energy-draining and some turned fatal within hours.
What I do know is I’m not ready to give 2020 a label. I’m not ready to call it all bad or to placate what ‘was’ with disguises. Nor am I willing to deny those exquisite and heart-opening moments, times when people came together, reached out to others they didn’t know and went the extra mile. We saw such moments throughout the world and suddenly no one was a stranger anymore.
In the work I do and in my personal world, I often witness that uniquely human quality called generosity. Every time I see an act of selfless generosity, I am filled with awe. Over and over it happened as someone’s generosity emerged during the toughest of times. Always unexpected, I watched it gently close the spaces between people. Those times of extreme generosity didn’t -couldn’t- completely bridge the gaps between beliefs or cultures but it was a salve when no healing was possible.
Now as we cross over the threshold into 2021, I want to find a way to remember the gifts of the past year. I want to be able to tell 2020 ‘thank-you’ and mean it. I can’t do that quite yet but I want to.
Perhaps this is the time when John O’Donohue’s words take on new meaning.
“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.”
From to Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings.
Saying Goodbye to 2020