A year to remember

So here we are we made it!

The season that so many people dread has come and gone, we brace ourselves for the months leading up to Christmas and then it’s gone.

Last night many people had bad storms and many are facing the awful scenes of their homes flooded, and yet as I sit writing this the sun is pouring in through my window, and the birds are singing darting in and out of the trees and shrubs showing me that nature will prevail. Whatever we throw at Mother Nature she reigns supreme.

When we are in dark times of trouble it is so easy to lose sight of so many things that are precious.

2020 is a year I think we all want to forget, but it was also a year of extraordinary acts of kindness, of communities coming together. It has been a time when people have felt really scared of what was happening, not just within their own community, but of what was happening all over the world.

Rarely does something happen that is so global.

It does make us realise how fragile our existence is, that a virus can rule our world.

Whilst we were worried and frightened there has been an army of people coping with the very worst of situations, our key workers, working tirelessly to try to keep us safe, teaching our grandchildren, keeping our streets free from rubbish, delivering our post, filling our supermarket shelves to keep us fed,  the amazing work done by our scientists in developing a vaccine, did we call them key workers before 2020?

I am sure I have left out so many people, who have just quietly ‘got on with it.’

We saw random acts of kindness in so many different forms happening,  someone left bunches of flowers on benches for people to take home, countless numbers of volunteers gave up their time to help others. I read today of something that bought a tear to my eye. A friend of someone who knew that their friend was going to be alone on Christmas Day, wrote notes in envelopes to be opened every hour, so that they would not feel so alone.

It is true that when we are facing difficult times it brings out the very best in people.

I hope that we can all learn by these acts of kindness, and to continue to put others first.

So a year when we clapped once a week for our NHS and other front line workers, a year when we had to put things into perspective, yes a worrying year but also a hopeful year.

As we look towards a brand new year, always a time of renewal, a new beginning let us make a conscious  effort to take all of the good things from 2020 and build on them.

We can all do an act of kindness, every day, we can all smile at people, and yes you can smile beneath that mask!

Actually is feels as though 2020 has flown past, maybe it’s because we don’t want to think about it, as it is too hard to revisit.

Many thousands of people just in the UK, will not be able to listen to the birds as I am doing, many families will have to face life without a loved one in their lives, so it is up to those of us who were lucky enough to wake up this morning to live life with meaning.  To live our lives giving not taking, to always think about how our actions impact on others.

Happy New Year.

 

 

About Jane

Jane setup Bristol Grandparent Support Group in 2007 after a string of incidents led to the loss of contact with her Grand Daughter.

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