New Beginnings and Lessons Learned

Reflecting on the challenges and lessons of the tumultuous year 2020, embracing humility, compassion, and simplicity, finding joy in love and meaningful connections rather than material excesses.

This year of 2020 that we have left behind has been one such as we had never before experienced. It has entirely made us rethink how we lived. It has made us feel more wary, more humble, and less cocky in how we behave. It has made us feel kinder to others. We used to think that we were in control of our actions. It very definitely taught us that we certainly are not. The pandemic swept across our world and felled so many of us that it is incomprehensible to us and beyond our grasp. I do not think that there is anyone amongst us who does not know of people that had not passed away in this horrific scourge.

The year 2020 made us realize that we are not infallible. I hope it has made us feel tolerant, kinder, and more compassionate to the loss and pains of others.

We have practiced social distancing, a new word in our universal vocabulary. We have learned to shed ourselves of the excesses we had become accustomed to. We have gone back to valuing and appreciating the basics which we had trivialized: good health, the love of family, and true friends. We have learned to live with our own selves and like our own company, especially if we live alone. We have experienced anxiety, fear, grief, and extreme loneliness. This year has taught us that beautiful things should not be valued by how much we spend. In September, my son Kelly married the love of his life, his Andrea. It was a simple yet meaningful and beautiful wedding. Because of the pandemic, there were only about eighteen people in attendance. There were no crowds, there were no excesses. Its simplicity and dignity are what made it stand out. The joy was in the love that was felt, the thought that was put into each thing planned, not in the money that was spent, but in each and every one that was there.

Yes, we have experienced many painful things this past year, yet I hope we have learned what is important and what is not.

I wish you all a very healthy, happy, and prosperous 2021. I pray that the pandemic will disappear with great haste in the coming year!