2020 in Hindsight
Who would have thought the world would be as it is today a year ago? It’s been exactly 9 months since we were told to stay home and everything stopped. Everything changed for everybody everywhere. And some things are changed forever in a way that we couldn’t have imagined. It pains my heart to know that this holiday season must be so difficult for so many, and these losses and sufferings will not end with the year.
The year 2020 was supposed to be a year full of excitement between Tokyo Olympic, the Presidential election, and my milestone birthday. I had planned to go back to Japan for the Paralympic to either volunteer or find some sort of a gig before going on a weekend trip to a hot spring with my high school girlfriends, who all were turning 60 this year, to celebrate our big birthday. Not only we obviously didn’t get to make such a trip, some of us had to deal with our ailing parents either in hospitals and/or in facilities with all the restrictions due to COVID.
As I sit here in my living room of the mountain house looking out the window to see the clear blue sky with lots of pine trees, I am at awe with the life I have today. I, too, had some challenges, but the bottom line is I am safe, healthy and comfortable, and I can’t imagine what my life would have looked like for better or worse if pandemic and the lockdown thereof didn’t happen.
Reflecting on such tumultuous year, I would acknowledge the unexpected yet positive outcomes. My greatest blessing — among truly so many — was that my kitty got to live the last several months of her life without having to travel back and forth between our city house and mountain house (she hated the car rides) and having me home almost all the time giving her so much attention until the very last breath. More than 2 months have passed since, and I am still really grateful to have had that time with her.
I also find it ironic that my social life has expanded in a whole new ways via the Zoom and other online platforms where you get to “see” people literally anywhere in the world. Where Zoom meetings were mostly for business related activities until then, I had my birthday party on Zoom and now “get together” with friends and family as well regardless of where they are. I’m sure people will continue to do it well after restriction of our activities are lifted. With my meditation practice, now I’m not confined to my local Sangha and get to attend other groups with people all over the world. Many organizations are probably adapting to the way we “had to” change how they operate as permanent changes.
I’m sure we will go back to the life as we had before more or less, but it is my hope that we all take whatever happened in 2020 personally and collectively to make a better world for all humanity and for the earth.
#YouCanSitWithMe