Thursday, Dec. 31
By Katherine Schneider, for the CVPost
If you want to say more than “good riddance” to 2020, read on for some reflections on auld lang syne and the New Year.
I surveyed friends about the good that had come out of 2020 and was overwhelmed by the response. (for the full report, see http://www.kathiecomments.wordpress.com .
People pointed out many things that can carry over from this difficult year. We can figure out new ways to do old things (shopping, church, working remotely, Zoom meetings, etc.). We can care for our neighbors (whether down the street, around the town or around the world) and we can find gratitude and joy in the little things (birdwatching, baking, pets, reading, etc.)
None of this finding the good is meant to deny the hard parts of 2020. The deaths and the losses – of jobs, housing, security and predictability of life – deserve mourning. Even mourning is harder without public rituals and hugs.
Bidding adieu to 2020
As you get ready to bid adieu to 2020 tonight, might you want to read a summary of the year by Dave Barry or some other favorite pundit? Or perhaps you have a favorite ritual that can be adapted for these COVID-19 times.
This could be writing things you’re glad to be done with on slips of paper and burning them or balling them up and throwing them in the trash. Or thinking through the year and deciding on a word for it—mine is “abiding,” meaning enduring.
As I contemplate the year, I consider questions like:
What were the things I did this year that were the best uses of my time, energy and money?
What didn’t work out and what did I learn from that?
Who was a challenge and what did I learn from them?
Where did I show courage, forgiveness and bring light to the world?
I’m also planning to write a thank you note or two to people who helped me greatly this year.
Set yourself up for success in making resolutions
If you’re the kind of person who makes New Year’s resolutions, by all means go ahead, but set yourself up for success. Good resolutions (according to psychology and personal experience) are: small, can be partially achieved, are something you really want to do rather than just something you should do, and are few in number.
For a light read on this subject, try New Year; Same Trash by Samantha Irby. Following my own good advice, I’ll change “read the whole Bible” (which bogs down in Leviticus in good years) to “read one book of the Bible each month.”
If you’re someone who likes social support, find yourself an accountability partner, buddy or coach. Rewards also work as long as it’s not a chocolate cake for sticking to your diet for a day!
Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton offers warm, low key ideas for honoring the end of the year and “to celebrate, acknowledge those we love and those we miss; to mark the passing of another year and to make peace and pies, marmalade and memories.”
It might inspire you to usher in a quiet, slow, winter-time, safe, socially-distanced 2021.
A poem . . .
Howard Thurman’s poem works for New Year’s as well as Christmas:
“I will light Candles this Christmas, Candles of joy despite all the sadness, Candles of hope where despair keeps watch, Candles of courage for fears ever present, Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days, Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens, Candles of love to inspire all my living, Candles that will burn all year long.”
To read previous installments of “The Corona Chronicles,” click here