We are Here..
Happy 2021!! If your New Years Eve was anything like mine, it didn’t involve singing and counting down the seconds to 2021 as a gold ball descended down, surrounded by a group of friends and acquaintances. It was a little different, but with some of the same traditions all the same. :)
It is a New Years tradition to sing an old Scottish song called Auld Lang Syne.. You know the one,
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And days of auld lang syne?
I love this song. When I listen to it, it evokes the exact feelings I usually feel as one year ends and another year begins. Wistful of all that has passed with the knowledge that every year is a product of the old ones. (Even this bitch of 2020.. :) )
But also hopeful. The song ends with,
We are here because we are here because we are here because we are here..
We are here-- not I am here or you are here but WE are here. Meaning that we aren’t alone. It’s also a reminder that despite all oddities and calamities of the last year (and let’s face it, there were A LOT in 2020), we are possible and here is possible. We made it. And we made it together.
This second day of 2021, I feel wistful. And hopeful. For all the seeds planted in 2020 and for what is possible again because of 2020.
If we have learned anything from this time it is to not take things for granted. Our friends and family. Concerts, get togethers and dinner parties. Holiday festivities and seeing older family members whenever we want. Wearing something other than comfortable cotton casuals. :) And the incredible gift of being able to hop on a train/plane/bus or car to see friends and family afar or see parts of this big wide world we live in.
I, for one, am not going to put off a meditation training I have been thinking about doing for years. Nor am I going to wait until that “special time” comes to travel to my bucket list locations (like Iceland en route to finally see my family next summer). I am also going to have and attend dinner parties and social gatherings more than usual. Support the arts by going to the Opera, the symphony and art museums. Get dressed up whenever I damn well feel like it. Say YES to the things I get an emphatic inner YES to :)
We live in hope--that life will get better, and more importantly that it will go on. That life and love will survive even though we will not. As Emily Dickinson put it, hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.
Vaccines are coming. And if we work together as a community to keep ourselves (ALL of us) healthy, we can resume our regular lives with lessons learned. Rather than look back to 2020 with regret or shame or guilt, which is a hopeless waste of time, we can instead put our energy into things we want. Not what we don’t. :)
Never gone on a yoga retreat and always wanted to? Wanted to learn Ayurveda at the same time? Join me in Greece May 22! Want to experience simple French country living in the midst of the vineyards of Bordeaux and the quiet streams of the Dronne? Join me in my September 7-11 retreat in Yviers, France.
Seize the day!! My summer retreats are already filling up. I am registering people but waiting on payment until we get a final go on summer travel, so let me know if you want to join on one of these epic trips. I , for one, can’t wait to seize these moments.