Saturday, 26 December 2020
I’m sitting here at my computer today writing what may or may not be my last blog of the year. It’s Boxing Day, December 26th 2020. We just finished Christmas, and what a Christmas we all had this year. It was different. We didn’t have to go to office parties. Those of us who belong to a few business groups didn’t have to go to those get togethers this year either. We likely had a dozen or so less times that we had to let the car heat up to go somewhere and you know what...I quite enjoyed it. I hope you did to.
The knowledge that I have friends out there who didn’t get to spend the holidays with a loved one is not lost on me. Some couldn’t see them because they have passed away and this was their first Christmas without them. Some live far away, like my family. Some perhaps are immune compromised and didn’t want to risk being in the physical presence of their loved ones, however painful that decision was. Some are in nursing homes that might be in an outbreak. For those who are still with us, they were able to video chat or have a zoom call, or even just have an old fashioned phone call. Let’s all take a minute to be grateful. I’ll wait.
I just spoke to a dear friend this morning who lives alone. She told me a few days ago that she and her family were preparing to have Christmas Day together via zoom. They even had family joining them from a few provinces over. They ate together, opened gifts together and played games together. She said it was one of her best Christmases with her family. Why? Because it will always be in her memory. She will never forget the year they all figured out how to be “together” despite it not being in the same room.
I’ve been calling people from my circle of friends the last few days and you know what the same running theme is? Love and appreciation.
Normally today people would be posting pictures online of what they got for Christmas. This year I haven’t seen one such post. What I have seen are dozens of family photos of kids laughing and parents, or other family members, smiling and laughing with them. I’ve also noticed a lot of my friends had a new furry family member join them this Christmas as well. I’ve also seen gorgeous shots of the blanket of glistening whiteness that has fallen on Niagara, the result of a giant snowfall we received during the late evening of Christmas Eve. What perfect timing, eh? We needed that. And what about that Christmas star that hadn’t been seen on the December 21st winter solstice in like 800 years!? That’s pretty special if you ask me.
Look at all the awesome stuff, to put it quite plainly, that we’ve experienced this year? We got to see the best in people, as we all banded together to help our friends and neighbours in whatever way we could. We also got to see the worst in people, as we witnessed racial riots and the ever present cries of humanity begging for equality and a voice. As much as things change, some things will unfortunately always be there at some level. I look at this as an ever present lesson that we must learn to coexist and get along. Even if we do, we can do better.
We may be sad and scared of what’s to come in terms of our second provincial lockdown, but we seem to have made the best of it for the most part. We have already proven we are resilient and capable of getting ourselves and our community neighbours through this pandemic. We can do it again. We will enter 2021 in the same state of emergency as we have been in since March of 2020. This time, we have a leg up. We have learned, we have adapted, we have conquered our fears and we will begin the third decade of the 21st century stronger than we think we are.
