A New Year

It has been a difficult road this year, but still I look at every day as a new opportunity.Michael Chang

Happy new year is the standard phrase. Prospero Ano y Felicidad. Bonne année People are hoping that next year is better. And I understand it. 2020has been a year of death and destruction by fire and pandemic. Yet I retain my eternal optimism.

When I look back on the year there are tragic losses:

The Almeda Fire, tagged a national disaster, destroyed 2700 homes. I see the rubble each time I leave the house and feel both gratitude and survivor guilt.

We lost dear friends, not by Covid-19. but their deaths are a reality.

We lost our lifestyle to Covid-19 restrictions. A main health pursuit, water Aerobics) was discontinued. Gathering with friends is curtailed. Buying groceries, eating out, being affectionately touched and held by family and friends – may be life-threatening. Even visiting the doctor is now by telephone or computer.

We have had our share of bumps and bruises from falls – some fairly serious.

We mourn the divisiveness in our country. It has been brought to the surface in perilous ways by our leadership.

As a nation and as a world the physical, financial, mental, and emotional cost of the pandemic is heartbreaking.

Still I am hopeful. And grateful.

Let our New Year’s resolution be this: we will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word. Goran Persson

XXOO