2020 - the positive points

 2020. Where do I start? A lot of people would just say that it was a really shit year. For many people it was the most awful year of their life with loss and tragedy across the entire globe. Words that had never been part of our vocabulary such as lockdown, the R number and quarantine quickly became daily phrases. We all lived through a year that we could not have anticipated or imagined. 

Now we have reached the very last day of 2020 and I ‘ve been thinking about whether, amongst all the bad stuff, was there anything positive? Has 2020 left me with anything good that I can take forward into the new year?

I started thinking about things that I had achieved during the year and even made a list.

·       Learnt to make sourdough bread

·       Started riding a bike for the first time in 40 years

·       Grew lots of fruit and vegetables myself

·       Walked more than I drove

·       Won a Fitbit

·       Read some amazing books

·       Watched some really great films

·       Spent lots of time with my daughters

·       Fell in love with Taylor Swift’s Folklore album

At first this just seemed like quite a random selection and I could not see any link at all but then I realised that there was one thing that ran like a thread through this list. It was TIME. For once I had the time to do all these things. I work freelance and normally I spend the majority of my life chasing work at all hours of the day. During 2020, my work dried up alarmingly which did lead to financial pressures, but this also gave me the gift of time. 

I had to take over coaching my youngest daughter in her athletics. She is a nationally ranked para-athlete, so it was important to maintain her training and this meant many early mornings in parks. I remember standing with the sun on my face one morning while she ran and just taking the time to breath and enjoy the peace.

Time also gave me chance to reconnect even closer with my daughters. We have also been a close family unit of three, but life gets in the way at times. You end up with hurried conversations and chats by text. Yes, we still bicker, that’s what families do but that closer connection is still there now.

As for the other things on my list, it was time giving me a chance to do things that I love and enjoy. That’s an important part of self-care and something that is incredibly easy to neglect as part of a busy life. It also helped me with my feeling of self-worth which is an issue that I struggle with. I was so scared about riding a bike again and caught up in what people would think of this overweight woman in her 50s wobbling along a path in the park, But I did it!! It was great, I loved it and I cherish that feeling of achievement.

So, the thing that I will take from 2020, the strangest year of my life, is an appreciation of time and a determination not to waste time. So many poor souls had their time cut short this year. I will appreciate all my time now and try to fill it in the best way that I can.

Happy New Year

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