It’s a New Year!

A December 2020 Sunset

The sun has set on 2020. We made it through! Hallelujah! PTL! Right?

Good riddance. Out with the old. Time for newness. New hopes for 2021.

Well, we need to see and feel 2020 for what it was - the many things that it was. It wasn’t all bad. It wasn’t all hard. It wasn’t all doom and gloom and division. Remember the couple months of “normal” before the lockdown began? Those months we’ve longed to return to?

And then…the lack of normal work. The increase in atypical, draining work (applying for loans, canceling plans, trying to find PPE, applying for unemployment, possibly having to move, finding new routines for eating, shopping, recreating, and communal time, and on and on. Having challenging conversations about social interactions with friends and family and how to keep it safe for everyone. The conversations and growth surrounding racial inequity and injustice. The stripping away and the learning, and frequently, the unlearning.

The learning.

We need to lean into learning, but we can’t force it. We can’t rush it. It doesn’t matter that it’s a new year, it comes when it comes. It comes on its own time. But the learning doesn’t come unless we are open to the uncomfortable, tiring, and even painful process of growth.

May 2020 be not just remembered as a hard year, a year to forget. May it be remembered as a year of transformation and growth. Don’t rush it, but lean in.

Happy New Year.

-Elle