We were hopeful. 2021 had to be better. Surely Life follows our Gregorian calendar, or even the Julian, and the world would instantly be healed of COVID, political unrest, racial and gender inequity, ignorance, addiction, carb overload, sugar highs, artificially plumped lips, and low riding pants. How disappointing that the turn of the page did not erase the sins of the world.
New year’s resolutions
New year’s resolutions faded with my youth as I realized that the ink on a journal leaf was not enough to motivate me to change my ways. The irony of changing habits in the most gluttonous, self-indulgent season of the year while confined by foul weather compelled me to give up making promises to myself that I could not keep. Resolutions are more successful when given time for a running start.
Hope for 2021
Still. There was hope at the end of 2020, and denial perhaps. Wanting to avoid tainting 2021, people continued counting the days into the new year with the old date. Thus, the day of the “insurrection” was not January 6, rather December 37.
I prefer January dates. Hanging onto December feels like wearing sick-bed clothes after a shower. The shower may not heal you, but you feel cleaner.
Every day is new year
When is it reasonable to claim the new year? Other than the hope of a vaccine, our household continues to experience 2020 in new and unexpected ways. I don’t see this as a personal test from God. It is just Life. And a reminder that is best not to wait for things to get better. Rather, each day is a gift to be lived, valued, and used to make 2021 a good year.
Good things to mull over!