Between Christmas and New Year, we spend time eating, drinking and start looking in the rear mirror to the year that is coming to an end. It is that time of the year when we look at what we did plan on doing and what exactly we achieved from the goals we set up during the first month of the year that is coming to an end.
I will ask you a question: How was 2020?
Maybe some will jump in and label this year using heavy words, but I am sure that many will see the half glass full of 2020.
In my opinion, if you are healthy, your family and friends are healthy, 2020 was not as bad as is portrayed by some!
Five statements to support that:
1. We learnt that many jobs could be performed from anywhere (basement, bed, kitchen, car) and sometimes with children and pets around and on us
2. New technology was at our fingertips, without too much training.
Overnight web-based video conference tools like Zoom, Google Meets,
Teams, Adobe Connect and WebEx become our best friends
3. In less than 5 minutes you are ready to go to work, sometimes half still
dress in pyjama and many times dressed like you are ready to go exercising
rather working
4. Our vocabulary expands with new words: pandemic, new normal, social distancing, everything virtual. And if you are from Canada we fall in love with two expressions “flattening the curve” and “speaking moistly”
5. Many we discovered the stove and the baking books again, and suddenly realized that we can cook from scratch everything, bread include
What I learnt personally:
- Shortly after March 2020, I stopped battling with something I can’t
control. And to stop the chaos, I self-educated myself to stay away from
COVID19. No news, since it was so complicated to disseminate from what
was true and what was false or what was working and what was not
working. And basic stuff: less touch, wear a mask, wash your hands! If you remember from mathematics or physics the “Chaos Theory” you will
understand that my strategy was not at all a bad one. The more you hear and think you “know” about the virus, the more you will change the way you think and act. A simple definition of the theory listed above is stating that: ’When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.’’ – source Wikipedia
Or as known as “Butterfly Theory” – an underlying principle of chaos,
describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear
system can result in large differences in a later state (meaning that there is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions). A metaphor for this behaviour is that a butterfly flapping its wings in Texas can cause a hurricane in China. – source Wikipedia - The most important part I learnt is the fact that we depend on support from other people – it is hard to live alone if you have to quarantine you depend on help from others, not all jobs could be performed by machines – and the list can go on and on. We have been in contact more often with our close family from close and far but most interesting fact, we get in contact with people we have never seen before, easier that we use to do it
- Furthermore, I realized that actually, we do not have borders, we have restrictions and conditions that make us think twice when we are thinking of moving from A to B. We figure out, once again, that in the small world we live in, we are all in this together! Our celebrations are similar and many times we have the same beliefs, maybe just labelled different
As I mentioned initially, for the country I was born in, Christmas is one of the most important celebrations. But following the native Canadian traditions, I realized that many things are so similar to our winter traditions. On December 21, in Canada, the natives celebrate the Winter Solstice. They acknowledge the arrival of the Winter Solstice by going out in the snow and by starting a huge fire as the fire light can touch the sky and bounce back to earth and bring to all people that live on hope, happiness and health. Waiting for the light to reach the sky, they thank the Creator for everything they got during the past year and offer to the fire tobacco, myrrh, incense and other plants harvested from Mother Earth. After they deliver the offerings to the fire, they are waiting for the Light to come back to the Earth and bring them a good and prosperous year.
Same motive, the LIGHT! Same with our light (the star from Bethlehem), brings the good news, that Christ was born. And the most important part was born to the Earth in the simplest house, from the simplest family. Because in life, you don’t need to be a celebrity or be rich to make people follow you. All you need to do is make people around you understand that the soul is the only one that makes a difference. Doesn’t matter how poor you are, or unknown if you have a warm heart and you are doing just good things you can make a difference in other people’s lives and indirectly on the Earth.
Our beauty is defined by our simplicity and transience. In 2020, more than in any other year before, we need to pause and accept that life is how it is, we need to be happy with whatever we have. What we don’t have, what is imperfect or not working as we expected, doesn’t matter in our life as much as matter if our life will tell in the end a story! The missing of that “something” needs to fire on us, positive emotions and to find the whole in life without that “something”.
In a year where the mantra was – please stay 2feet apart – thousands we stay so close together more like in any other situations or any other year. And this is the most important part we need to remember and learn from!
May the Winter celebration and the New Year bring you health, happiness and an imperfect star to lighten your room with her beauty!
PS. After many other Zooms celebrations during 2020, on December 26 (for Ontario the first day of the second lockdown) around the Christmas tree, we met to celebrate again. The story above was prepared for that day and was presented during the show on PulsTV Station. Enjoy the full show!
