It’s arbitrary. It really doesn’t mean that anything will change automatically. But it is 2021, a new year, a fresh start. The symbolism of that is enough to set people on a different path.
2020… It sucked. In general. I can’t say all of it, and I hope that everyone can look back and find some good that happened. For me, I got married. We moved into a beautiful home. We got a dog. I got a new job. I started spending more time with family. My sister got married. There was a pretty thick silver lining to that cloud.
Of course, 2020 was still a really angry storm cloud, huge and dark with lots of lightening and thunder. I don’t think I need to reiterate for anyone. It hasn’t quite dispersed yet. And this is where we’re at. Still in the rain.
The good thing about rain, though, is that as destructive and depressing as it can be, it also does a lot of good. It cleans things. It helps them grow. And it doesn’t last forever, even if it sometimes feels like it here in Cleveland. Hopefully 2021 will bring us this type of energy.
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on 2020– what happened, how it happened, why it happened– and I realized what I want to focus my energy on going forward:
HEALING
The primary definition that pops up on the good ol’ Google machine is “the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again,” but there are two definitions that I think better express what I need and want to do:
- “alleviating distress or anguish”
- “correcting or putting right an undesirable situation”
There’s specificity and nuance in these meanings. To me, these entail not only an internal process, working on myself, but also turning out to the community and the people around me. Some thoughts on what forms this healing might take:
- Talking to a therapist or mental health specialist
- Setting boundaries for myself and others
- Creating more connection with family and friends
- Making my way back to hobbies
- Reducing social media
- Supporting local businesses
- Supporting causes I care about through time, donations, advocacy
- Learning from others with different perspectives
- Making deliberate choices and taking action instead of going with the flow
2020 was quite a wakeup call in a number of arenas. Here’s to acting on those revelations. Happy 2021!
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