Last couple of years has been unbearably trying in so many ways. It was a time that proved for us the strength of our inner spirit. A test to prove to ourselves how fit we were in fighting back against the many defeating thoughts that bombarded our lives.
2020 was one of the most anticipated years and will be the one most remembered! We all made plans, then boom… a pandemic that in many ways taught us that it had no sense of who we were. Royal or commoner… Black or white it shown no favoritism. It was limitless and it came with a vengeance. It disrupted lives and rearranged priorities. It taught us that despite advance intelligence in our modern world, money color or race, none of us had control.
Adapting to quickly learn and understand how life sometimes can be unreasonable and uncertain! We all had plans and for some the year to settle down and find someone to share the coming years with never realizing this would be the year to learn lessons beyond our years of maturity.
We were plagued by so many images, many that literally took us to the brink of a mental collapse. We looked for smiles as reassurance to our own identity and many times there were none to be seen. The core of what we knew as normal trembled and forced us to take a deeper look at our own masked loneliness. So many goodbyes had to be said, some forced and at times without even realizing the depth of the pain until now.
Taking deep breaths became a therapeutic melody. God pointed to us in the most certain of ways that he was in total control, and no one was greater than he is! We needed comfort from all the pain and prayer became a drug for even the unbelievers. We were all in this together, thrusted into survival mode, fighting to find that indomitable will to keep going. We felt accountable not only for ourselves and our loved ones, but it was each of our individual responsibilities to do whatever we could to help each other and in many ways, and in some ways, we conquered fairly with persistence and love.
Still in between the faint lines of these past years, there was some really good days and some intolerable bad days. None of us can say we are the same person today walking into this unpredictable New Year, the same person we were.
The complexity of these unexpected years, I have to admit left me hopeless, broken and unfixable in so many ways…
Before 2020 we took time and the people, we love for granted. We postponed feeling vulnerable and falling in love, because in many ways love felt like something that could be bought when it was needed and returned when we became tired of it. For this new year, may we learn to follow our hearts with courage and faithfulness having an open mind to learn from every situation faced in our lives. Let us learn to be compassionate and kind to ourselves and embracing others for who they are despite our differences.
For many of us the year has left with pieces of our hearts but today we are again given, the first page of this 365-page blank book, a new chance to fall in love, to learn to embrace our weaknesses, applaud our strength and learn how to walk away from the things that has held our soul's captive! A blank page to allow us to find the best way to let go of the fears and embrace the opportunities that will come our way even on the days when failure knocks, we must remember that by trying we have already won half the battle!!
So, as we all take a deep breath and open the curtains to this New Year, let’s do it in faith and love remembering the ones who are no longer here with us to celebrate.
