On New Year’s Eve 2019, while watching the fireworks and excited for a fresh start, a new decade in 2020, we could not have imagined what awaited us, what awaited the world, in the year ahead. Coronavirus seemed to creep into our psyche slowly, insidiously day by day, week by week, until weeks became months and then overtook the entire year.
Will our parents be all right? Should I stock up on toilet paper, chicken soup, ginger ale and Thera-Flu to prepare? Would Anchorage have a summer tourism season? Is the airline industry going to survive? Would we all survive?The mask controversy, stay-at-home orders, George Floyd’s murder and the aftermath, the fact that American can’t even agree who will be the president of the United States next month, it all has been heavy, and a lot to carry. Families are divided, friends cannot seem to understand each other’s perspectives, and sometimes it feels like the world won’t be able to heal.
We have grown, we have learned a lot about ourselves. Our own views of the world and our levels of compassion have been more solidly shaped. We have had to boil down our daily lives to simple existence, and that has taught us what really matters, like a condensed version of ourselves.
The optimistic bits in us are looking forward to a New Year, once again. No one knows what the new year will bring. There are some things that are probably changed forever, and some of those will be improvements. As we close out this year, and look to the next, may we be stronger, with straight spines and shoulders squared, with compassion in our hearts, hands ready to comfort and care for those in need, and minds open to new ways to work, show love, show concern, care, learn and play.
— Karen Kroon
Anchorage
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