Taking Stock

Foro Italico, Palermo

I like to mark milestones, and therefore I really like this time of the year - when everything is winding down, and when there are so few days remaining that you can begin to count down until the calendar runs out. You can set goals with a hard and fast deadline. Even though the time goes by extra quickly this time of the year, you are motivated to make it count.

Because we believe that the start of the new year brings a fresh start for us, too. A chance to reinvent ourselves: to be “better” in some way than we were before. Many times, we spend the last few weeks of December trying to hold ourselves to that standard we set January 1, and maybe lost track of during the other ten months of the year.

This year, was obviously an anomaly.

Everyone being affected in one way or the other by the pandemic had to immediately learn to adapt. To pivot. To let go of the myth of having some predictability. To reconsider what is important. I certainly have. As this year winds down, I am reflecting more than usual on how things have changed. Instead of reminiscing about the places I visited, I am practicing gratitude that I had a home to nest in during lockdown. I’m reflecting how being in lockdown gave me the time and space to focus on and prioritize taking care of myself and my health. I am holding in my heart my friends and family near and far who, thanks to technology, I am able to see their faces and hear their voices even from oceans away.

I learned many lessons. And moving forward, I am taking them with me.

This pandemic has shown us where we are broken - both individually and as societies. We all know people who have lost something this year - a job, maybe, or tragically a loved one. This is serious. It is my hope that this period has been a wake-up call. To acknowledge systemic injustices, and to resolve to be better. To actually contribute positively to making the world a better place. To come together as global networks of communities helping out each other in our own neighborhoods. If you were fortunate to have had “time” during this pandemic, then that is an immense privilege. And it is an opportunity.

Let’s not look back with nostalgia, but look forward knowing that we can be better. The writing is on the wall. Most of it is tied into common standards of doing the right thing and acknowledging our brothers and sisters of common humanity. The doors are there for us to open. But it is up to us to take action, to use our voices, and to walk in the right direction.

love,

greer