2020…it knocked so many of us down.
But let’s not let it keep us there.
2021 is here…and many things are still the same. How do we move on? How do we accept the joy that did occur in 2020 without it all just falling under the blanket of “2020”?
My family welcomed a daughter during this year that is labeled as so bad. It wasn’t all great. Most of it was hard but I do not wish for her year of birth to just be forevermore that “bad year”.
2020…I don’t love you. But I don’t hate you. Let’s be transparent. I hate that people just hate you….aimlessly hate you.”2020 sucks,” they say.
2020 has joy. It has open joy. It has joy you need to look for. Half of the people who JUST hate 2020…nothing happened to them.
Don’t get me wrong. So many people suffered. People have lost in ways I cannot imagine.
Then there are also folks who feel slighted while they at least temporarily forget the blessings they have.
I am the first person to ask people to stop worrying about holidays and birthdays we could not share together and cherish the lives we still hold dear.
I have hurt in 2020. My businesses have hurt. My finances have hurt.
My realities have shifted and it’s not easy.
I have lost people. I have lost things. I have lost freedoms. I have lost a solid financial plan. I have lost wishes. I have lost dreams. I have absolutely lost securities even coming into this new year.
But there are so many important things that we do still have.
I have a mom who lost things and chose my daughter. She chose to be safe and sound for her past any sacrifice.
I have a dad who sincerely almost lost his life as this virus began. He fought and chose sobriety to choose my daughter.
I have a brother who lost all normalcy with standard rights of passage as he left high school and entered the world, but he has gracefully moved forward on a shifted path. School looks different. Work is different. But it goes on.
I have a goddaughter who turned one in 2020. A goddaughter who also needed to be kept safe with so many questions as this all began. A stunning little lady I wish for all of the time in the world with.
I have a nephew who will wonderfully be born into this crazy world. My deepest wishes include his momma being ok and whole as he makes his entrance.
Time
I have a husband who has been gifted this extra time here. Time for lunches. Time for dinner with his daughter and me. Time for bedtime kisses and bedtime stories and even bedtime diapers that would not have been on his to-do list in other realities.
I have a daughter. A daughter whom I touched first, the very moment she was born. In a non-2020 reality, that would not hold true. I have a daughter who came into this world right to her “mum-mum-mum” as I like to think she is truly calling me now. A daughter who defines Poe’s “the best of times and worst of times” as simply the best.
I have a daughter who was born in what so many would call the worst, but we CHOSE to find JOY and call it the best. A dad who is here and safe, a mom who is safe, a daughter with a safe, healthy entrance in which her mom’s comfort, safety, and morals were never questioned or compromised.
