2020 was a tough year. A year filled with many unexpectedencies. It started fine but when the world changed we were forced to change with it. The covid-19 pandemic brought fear and uncertainty when it moved across the world. It left in its wake death and destruction. Death to many of our loved ones and destruction to many of our jobs and businesses. Our way of life forever changed. And it’s still ravaging our communities, overtaxing our hospitals, and taking our loved ones from us too soon.

On top of the pandemic,  here in America it was an election year. And it was quite the volatile election year I must say. Some hard lines were drawn and people definitely took sides. There didn’t seem to be too much room for compromise, just a bunch of crazy days and angry people. Being civil in many instances wasn’t part of the equation. This wasn’t true for everybody but for a whole lot of people.

It’s been hard to stay positive when so much has happened, but we press on because we have to. We have to continue to move forward; we have to continue to fight; we have to continue to be strong in the face of adversity. We will overcome, and for those of us that remain, our lives will forever be changed because of what 2020 took from us. But hope is on the horizon.

As we move into a new year we will carry remnants of this last year with us, but we hope that this evil and horrible pandemic that has changed so much for so many will come to an end or at least be controlled. I hope that the sun rises and we can see the beauty in the world again. I hope that we can begin to heal. I hope that when we recall the tragedies that we faced that we remember, with fondness, those things we’ve lost and not the circumstances that took them from us. This year, this pandemic took my Daddy. He had some health issues he was fighting through, but to add coronavirus on top of it was just more than his body could handle. We miss him every day, and I don’t think any of us expected 2020 to be the year that we would lose him. I know many of you reading this have also lost loved ones. I understand, and I feel your pain. Maybe you didn’t lose any people but you lost your job, your business or your home Maybe you just lost your sense of security or your peace of mind. Trust me we’ve all lost more than we ever expected in this year, and I’m glad that it’s over.

I hope this new year brings healing to us all. I hope this new year brings new life. I hope this new year brings a smile back to our faces. I hope this new year can somehow bring us together. Maybe there was some good that came out of all this. I’m sure some families grew closer because they were forced to stay home together. Maybe we have been able to cut out some things that were causing extra weight to our lives. I believe most of us have had some level of reevaluation. I’m sure a lot of people felt lonely for most of this year because we weren’t able to be with people we love, but thanks to technology it was easier than ever to reach out and stay in touch.

This post feels a little scattered and kind of all over the place. I wasn’t sure how to write it but I felt it was necessary; I had to get it out of me. I hope for you and for me that this new year will be better than this last one. I hope this time next year we’re celebrating a good year, a year where things got better. I hope that we all can learn to love one another better and learn to accept each other for who we are as individuals. I hope that we can learn to love and not hate. I hope that we can somehow find peace in our world despite our differences. I hope we all can find common ground. May we remember and never forget, but may we also look forward to the future, with hope guiding our way.

Published by Jeff

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