As the year comes to an end, many are left wondering what 2020 has meant. What lessons did we come away with if any. There is no doubt it left its mark on the majority; be it through loss, isolation, illness or just having to slow down. Many are waiting for the final bell announcing its departure in hopes of newness coming our way. In my mind when that final firecracker pops, I will be left with a mix of profound sadness and relief. I will grieve for the ones lost. I will grieve for the loss of connection. I will grieve for so much change. I will grieve for the collective anger and fear swimming amongst us. So much has been lost but alas much has also been gained. We have been given the opportunity to see anew. The scales have been removed from our eyes. We have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Many of us have had to remove toxic friends and even family from our lives to maintain our own sanity and morality. We have been surprised by words and actions of those close to us. We have been given a mirror to look at all of our tears, cracks and breaks. The question remains can we heal?

Always after the dark comes the light. Will we find a new way to be? Are we witnessing the end of an era and the last attempt of an outdated power structure to cling to power? Is the pandemic a harbinger of change to come? In the darkness we have the time to sit with ourselves, to observe. We have the moment to see what we are really about, to test our mettle. As frightening and triggering a specific event may be it sometimes forces us to stop. It forces us to see our fears and to ask who and what we are. Are we our jobs, our houses, our bank accounts? We saw our own insecurities and many felt the need to assert their “rights” to the detriment of others. We did not work as a unit to solve a common problem and we were left wondering what went wrong. The universe sent us a lesson. Only time will tell if we learned.

Times are changing and we can allow the change or we can dig our heels in and fight with all of our might. It won’t matter as fate will always have its say and the universe and mother nature were here well before man.