I know a lot of people are saying how horrible the year 2020 was. Sure, that’s easy. If you are stuck on a deserted island, the easiest thing to do is talk about how terrible it is.
But instead of complaining about being stuck on an island, let’s see how you built a crab-trap with bamboo. Let’s see the hut you built with palm fronds and coconuts.
It is not the circumstances that define our success, it is what we did with them.
There were a lot of examples I saw from the people on FUD this past year that were marvelous to me. There were so many of them, and I don’t have all of the stories, but here are just a few that I can recall.
The first one was early in the year when the pandemic was just getting ramped up. Her marathon got cancelled and I talked to @LarissaW about it. She was upset and I suggested she wait a few months and see how things would shape up later in the year for a marathon. But she decided to go ahead and do it as planned, on the same date, and run it by herself (with occasional company from her parents and a few occasional phone calls too). What she did was incredibly inspirational for me. It totally set it up for me in terms of what I would have to do this year. After seeing what she did, I went after it the same way. A huge tip-of-the-hat and hugs to Larissa for setting my mind right for the year as far as racing.
Another beautiful thing I saw this year was from @daisymae. When the pool got shutdown, she immediately went after something else. She took up running, and went after it with the same vigor as she goes after swimming. Yes, she got hurt and it did not have a great ending. But the fact that she immediately took the circumstances and worked with them was truly inspiring to me. I have total confidence that she will heal and recover and get back to something very soon. There is no doubt, because that’s who she is. She’s a fighter. And 2020 gave me one more opportunity to see it.
Before things got totally crazy with the pandemic, @TiaG put Samson in an outdoor camp with soccer, hiking, biking, and other activities. Wearing a mask and playing soccer and continuing to enjoy life and not be limited - I think that was beautiful. It meant more hearing about it this year than just normal camp in a normal year. I loved that.
When hockey got shutdown for him, @John58 started working more on his house. I saw the pictures, a giant mountain of rocks he moved and then leveling the foundation of his house. He is like a modern-day Paul Bunyan or John Henry. He is super-human. Not sitting around waiting for the pandemic to end, he got to work on something else. That was inspiring.
I loved discussions with @ClaudnDaye. His focus was on keeping his little ones safe. The pandemic was not going to harm them. The most important thing to a mother bear (or father bear in this case) is to keep their little cubs safe and protected. I think it was beautiful to hear about and to just be reminded of that perspective from time-to-time. It was helpful for me this year to be reminded that the most important thing I can do is keep my family safe.
Besides his creative solution to the toilet paper “famine” earlier in the year, people may not be aware of this, but there is something that @Sam did this year that was amazing. It was awesome! He got the highest score of anyone on an exam he had been prepping for. Congrats Sam!
I loved discussions with @T1Allison this year as she dug in on home-schooling. When things return to normal, her boys will be ahead of their peers. Academically they will not be missing a thing. Again, it is worth pointing out that seeing things like this during these difficult times really highlights what is truly important. And it is beautiful to see examples like this illustrating a parent’s love.
These are just a few of the things that come to mind from discussions I have had with people here, and posts I have seen here. There are so many more here, but I need your help to highlight them all. Please tell me what made 2020 inspirational or beautiful or wonderful for you. What is it that you did this year that you might not have done in any other year?
). I feel like overall I had more time and energy for things that actually mattered because I wasn’t just keeping as mindlessly busy as I normally would have.
