Twenty Twenty Won?

 Only a dozen days left in this year, and quite frankly I am glad! As I hear horrors of the third variant of a pandemic, I yearn for it to truly begone! I cannot will it so, it may never end completely. I am told this last variant has less resemblance to impending lung failure than a common cold. We all know the common cold will never go away! I don’t have to like it, but in it’s commonality I can accept and manage it in the usual ways.

I choose to indulge in the joy of a scaled back holiday. In Texas Hill Country, I can still enjoy bright sunshine through my kitchen windows often. In fact, daytime temperatures have bounced from the forties to a couple of days later, climbing into sunny eighty degrees. Oh how I love that warmth! Most people still sport masks at large indoor gatherings. On my street, neighbors gather for shared dinners and cheer! One couple has led the way to host “dinner in the hood” often. We laugh and discuss events, history, hopes and dreams. I am grateful to be in the midst of these wonderful people. I am reminded of a recent sermon advising that we “love our neighbor”! What’s not to love about these neighbors!? I have truly been blessed in 2021!

I can hope 2022 brings far away family back into more personal space. For now, I will be at peace with mail, telephone and text visits.

I Should Have Seen it Coming

 I just landed smack dab into the end of the third quarter of this year. We are gradually returning to a very few privileges I always took for granted. Constant presence of a mask to put over my face as I enter a building, requesting permission to enter a friends home without wearing it, watching the calendar to determine timing of additional vaccine acceptance, hoping to add my flue shot without conflict. Now that was one long sentence! 

It feels more like I have been “sentenced” to never ending isolation. A few precautions relaxed briefly, are now accepted as an ongoing necessity. A table set for eight previously, now will only seat three or four properly distanced dining companions. A medical appointment includes a temperature check before masked entrance is permitted. I cannot say it is a bad thing to wash our hands often, but who cleans the tops of the hand sanitizer bottles positioned publicly.  I prefer to carry my own small individual bottle. 

This is our new world life. Times change but I will adapt.

2020 Hindsight

One of the worst years I can ever remember is now well behind me. I could provide a list of miseries endured, but that would be rather silly. Everyone I know can share a similarly eventful year. I am not alone in my relief that it is over...or is it! A full quarter of 2021 is crossed off the calendar. I still carry a supply of masks and disinfecting wipes at all times. People we lost far too soon are still gone. Restaurant dining is no longer common. In fact some of my favorite restaurants are gone forever. Meeting in person is still an unusual event. A visit to cheer a hospitalized friend is still taboo. 

Yes, I can see clearly now, at least from eyes without corrective lenses. Surgical removal of cataracts and astigmatism correction allows for reading fine print and street signs easily. Never bothered by bright sunlight, I now appreciate my sunglasses. Appropriately that was in the last week of 2020. Choosing to find joy in all things, and there it is!