Farewell 2021….

The first amaryllis of the “winter.”

As I sit here pondering what to write on this final day of 2021, I feel as though it’s all been said before. Most of 2021 was a repeat of 2020, but with slightly different timing. If I just reprinted last year’s post it would be fairly accurate. The biggest difference is that we started 2020 totally naive and unprepared for a pandemic year while most of us began 2021 with high hopes for vaccines, but also with guarded skepticism so we continued to stock up, take precautions, and grow as much as possible. We felt prepared for the “few months” it would take to get the vaccines distributed. We didn’t dream that at the present moment, the USA would be racking up over half a million new Covid cases in a single day! I just can’t wrap my head around that statistic and all it’s ramifications. Another difference is that last year we had a lovely snowfall covering the ground. This year, we’ve just had rain, rain, rain. I wish we could send some of it to the areas in Colorado being devoured by wildfires. Both years seemed to be filled with unusual tragedies…the massive wildfires across the globe, record-breaking flooding in new-to-flooding places, amazingly destructive tornadoes, famine-producing droughts, plagues of locusts and more. That doesn’t even include all the suffering from civil wars, protests, and crimes. The toll taken in terms of economics is nothing compared to the mental and emotional toll. So many people have been lost in one way or another that we are almost becoming numb.

And yet “time marches on” and I find myself once again looking back and looking forward, wondering if we are now living in “the new normal,” although as one commercial states, “there is no normal.” I really didn’t think I’d still be ordering masks, but we are and now we are told we should have a home test or two on hand as well. Some local stores have closed, but there are also some new ones just opening!

During that brief “cheerier” spell, we booked flights to go visit family in Florida in January. Now with so many flights being cancelled and warnings that the “big surge” is two to four weeks away, I’m wondering if we will actually travel or if this will be yet another “stay at home” year. Whatever happens, there is the garden, with it’s magical explosion of growth in a rainbow of spring colors to anticipate. The new Kindle can be loaded with fascinating books even if we still can’t visit our library, and there are amaryllis bulbs in various stages of growth to brighten the table all winter. The one above opened early this morning to provide beauty for our New Year’s Eve Day.

There are many, many blessings if we just look around us. There are also many ways to help those less fortunate. So tonight, I’ll raise a glass and toast the New Year, and wish “happiness and good health to each one of you!” May you find many, many ways to make it a good year, regardless of what happens. Blessings!

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