What a ride-along a year 2020 was. It hit us hard. It’s difficult to believe now that the dawn of 2020 held so much of hope and belief just like every other ‘Happy New Year’.
Just for the sake of old times, let’s sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and feel the relief slowly spread as vaccines have arrived and mass inoculations have started across the world. This year we are all trying to find the upside of a tumultuous year.
It’s not always easy to navigate through tough times to find a spot of brightness. But we need to cut ourselves some slack! We need to be proud of the way we have handled this passing year.
It was not easy at all for anyone, ranging from children to women to men. Each home soldiered on its own silently, sometimes the same as the next-door apartment or sometimes completely different from what one could ever guess. We have found strength in the battle, both within the mind and beyond. We must celebrate this newfound forte.
Take it easy
Now that 2021 is here, some of us have started self-improvement projects early on! My better half accompanies me in these refreshing walks, but for him, my brisk walk is just a saunter. So I tell him to get up ahead and walk his brisk. He throws a quick split: “Let me control my diet and trim a bit, then I need to walk only that much lesser!” We chuckle and walk along! This is a guy, who always takes it easy, rain or shine!
If anything, this year has taught us the spirit of being kinder to the self and to one another. We realised how valuable others were and how precious every little thing we took for granted was. We regret the times we may have refused coffee invitations from our friends just because we didn’t want to show up.
A few days ago, Facebook had a hashtag known as ‘flawed-me’ going on. Like the many hashtag revelations that took place before this, many of us saw that the idols that we adored as being perfect became flawless from the small pieces of themselves that they patched together. When the ‘imperfect self’ challenge happened and these women presented their vulnerabilities, a moment of realisation dawned! They are just like us, only they have taken up the mission of presenting a better version of themselves so that they can inspire and lift other women up!
When home truth runs hit the base
2020 was the year, many such home truth runs hit the base. We realised, having less was more than enough if we had our family safe and sound with us. We realised everything else could wait if we ended up in a hospital.
Families became closer, relations became dearer, and the chance to assemble and just be with family and dear friends were not missed past October when the virus started becoming less virulent. We started taking the time to connect with those we loved most.
This is the year that taught us to value our blessings even if we supposed they were little. Because we witnessed first-hand how even that little was not available to some others among us. Many of us have learnt to bloom where we were planted and with success too.
This is the leveller of a year and hopefully an eye-opener. When we immersed ourselves with goals of more power, more money, and more luxuries, this year had come to us to teach us a different lesson!
Let’s take into 2021, the kindness that filled the cup of our minds, and the resilience we gathered. 2020 was just that, ‘The year of survival.’ Let’s borrow from Robert Brault and “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things.”
Feby Imthias is a writer based in Abu Dhabi. Twitter: @Feby_Imthias
