Many, if not all of us, are ready to say hello to 2021. Yet something about 2020 feels as if it’s still very stuck to me, like a virus. Too soon for puns? Yea, probably. And so we’ll use some of our cherished moments to bid farewell to this past year. And yes, I meant to write it like that. We’ll use some of our cherished moments. Because if we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that every moment is precious, glorious, tragic, infinitely temporary.

This past year had extra helpings of everything- from loss, deep reflection, to forced new beginnings and silver linings.

No longer do we require a lesson on the value of true friends, family, our teachers, and community. We don’t need to remember to consider how we consume, and to do so with an expansive consciousness that recognizes the power of our voice, our votes, and our wallets.

Nor do we need a reminder on the importance of our willingness to persevere, and that it requires great individual, personal and communal sacrifice. Not to mention that we need to wash our hands much more often than we thought.

2020 Gave Us Time to Appreciate

We have been pushed, often physically, to re-evaluate how we spend our most precious commodity: time. 

Time showed up everywhere, right alongside our money, so at first, we might not have quite discerned how cherished time is. We looked, anxiously, at numbers and calculations. Numbers of people getting infected, sick, and dying. Results of tests, rates of infection, and percentages within our populations. All while our bank accounts dwindled, unemployment skyrocketed, the world psyche plummeted, and inequality reigned. 

Time watched on through it, all of it. Yes, ever the observer, time. And now, we know. We have learned. Right? 

Remember 2020

Now it’s time to walk into 2021. Yet in every moment, every new year, and every breath we have the freedom to take, we will do well to remember what 2020 has given us. How our individual and collective experience of 2020 will indelibly shape our lives moving forward. 

We learned new skills- everything from technology so we could stay connected, to how to meditate in order to disconnect. We read new books, baked, puzzled, sang, strummed, danced, did yoga, hiked, meditated, and worked. We worked hard.

My cousin got married. Our best friends lost a brother, others their parents, sisters, cousins. So much loss was experienced, and so intangibly, yet our losses are very tangible. We had one of the best summers outdoors that we can ever remember. New and old friendships have been seeded, tended to, and blossom to bear delicious fruit. We learned the vital and incalculable worth of our breath. 

Our families have been ripped apart by tragedy and mended from a well of forgiveness we thought had run dry. Our country, like many others, has joined in opening our eyes to the racism, divisiveness, and hatred that we are historically and presently capable of giving with such a might that it can rip bonds between brothers and burn down towns. 

Did We Learn From Our Time in 2020?

My hope is that we have learned, in all of this, about the value of our lives and time. I know we can depend on each other to remind us to give time to ourselves. To tell each other how important it is to choose how we spend our time, to be respectful of it when we ask someone to share their time with us, to see not only the value of our own time but that we all share this finite thing, time, our lifespan. 

I have not. I have not learned all about time. I feel like I’ve always been the kind of person who’s known the very precious nature of it. That every time I see you in person may be the last. And yet my mind claws to find memories of the last time I saw you in person while my heart yearns to be in your presence, even just once again. Yes, I know how precious time is, and so do you. So what will we do with it, now?

I hope that the anticipation and passing of the holidays (and what they may or may not bring) have turned into emancipation for you. I hope we can continue to get worked up about things that matter and act. I hope that we can love, laugh, breathe, live and thrive. I hope you know how much I miss you. And I hope that 2021 is no worse than, and is at least as exquisite as 2020.