Gnarly … Oh what a year 2020 was!
Gnarly: that might be a good word for 2020. Definition: “very difficult or challenging to deal with; like a gnarly [=thorny, knotty] problem.” Yep, that was 2020 in so many ways.
The year that we learned to stop so we could go. Yes, that’s how I look at 2020. We stopped going out so we could be able to survive long enough to go later. We stopped being satisfied just shouting a slogan of Black Lives Matter and decided to go march. We stopped waiting for someone else to do it for us and decided to go do it ourselves. We stopped sitting on the sidelines and decided to go vote in huge numbers. We lost so many people but they inspired us to keep going.
But, we’re here and most of us survived it. We are changed though. Actually, now is when we remind ourselves of what the old folks say, “what doesn’t kill ya makes ya stronger.” Well, then we are going into 2021 with major strengths. We’ve been through storms in 2020 and for those of us able to read this, we persevered and made a way.
I’m keeping this short because the lessons are in the survival without having to spend too much time talking about the journey. We know what we went through and we know how scarred we are (and honestly how scary it all was at the time). I just want us to know that scars are battle-tested ways that we appreciate what we have and reminders that we came through it. If we did it before, we now know we have powers within us that are there any time we need them. To me, 2020 is a stepping stone, literally what grounds me for springing forward into a fabulous 2021.
I am excited about what our country will have for leaders in the White House in 2021 and what we as a people did to get them there. I believe that we are a stronger America because of the marches in the streets and the way we stood up as groups of multicultural / ethnic / all ages / all races to say enough is enough … no more kneeling on our necks. We know our power now and we will use it.
And I am fearlessly moving into 2021.
