The year 2020 was anything but predictable. It was a year of uncertainty, fear, challenges and worry. However, it was also a year of grit, family, care and hope. I started writing gratitude posts some time ago. It was supposed to be a monthly thing, but I have been able to do it like once a year! Not proud of that, but I didn’t want to break that tradition so here goes… Better late than never.

What a year 2020 has been!

I have a solid story to tell my grandchildren – How we survived the year of 2020! Jokes apart, the year started on a high for me with a great family vacation and some quality shopping sprees in the first 2 months. Those who know me, know well that I am not a big shopper. But this year I found a couple of interesting shopping exhibitions that supported small businesses, farmers and local artisans. I loved that experience and look forward to attending them in person again in 2021.

Lockdown Family Bonding

Come March and all our plans to do a road trip to my native place went ‘kaput’ with lockdown enforcement. My mother was visiting us around that time and she couldn’t go back and ended up staying with us for nearly 10 months. That meant after many years we stayed together for a long time. Conversations and nostalgia were in abundance and this ended up being a great time to actually pause and bond as a family.

Children had various anxiety issues with all the negative news being aired 24*7. We tackled them as a family and explained the rationale while cutting the drama from the news. I was amazed to see the determination of children to follow the lockdown rules. They religiously followed all restrictions and even ended up giving a piece of their mind to those who were flouting rules. Not once did I hear them crib about missing playtime, not meeting friends, not having a huge birthday party or the endless squabbling that they do when they are together.

Cooking Experiment’s that ruled the House

Another thing that bonded our family was cooking experiments. Everyone was ready to don the chef’s hat and right from South Indian to Mexican and Mediterranean to Rustic Maharashtrian, there were delicacies being doled out from the kitchen every day! Kids got better at making pancakes and roti’s while husband showed off his baking prowess.  Lockdown cooking helped us find the happiness and contentment that would otherwise have been difficult.

New Learnings for young and old

As the new academic year started, we all learnt the ways and etiquettes of online learning. Children quickly got into the routine of learning online but my heart went out to the many that could not arrange the infrastructure nor had the means to learn online. It made us look at the poor preparedness of our educational institutions if such a scenario was to come up in future. I hope this period of learning shows the way for a robust educational system that pushes the physical boundaries and ensures that learning never stops for young India.

The lockdown periods also meant a time to upskill and learn a few things. I was happy to get my certification done for content marketing and start preparing for another one.

Social distancing for the greater good

There was no socializing for the first 6 months of the year as all maintained social distancing for the greater good. We hardly visited our family –immediate or extended as most fell into the high-risk category, but that didn’t mean we stopped caring. These small sacrifices gave us peace of mind and confidence that our family was safe.

We contributed in our small way by providing for food for the migrants, face masks for the essential service providers etc. These small acts got us closer to seeing the real danger that these people were facing on a daily basis.

We cried as stories of grit and determination were shared and felt shameful when we heard stories of doctors and policemen being evicted from their homes for the fear of the virus. These news articles made my daughter think deeper and at times her questions were enough for some soul searching. The year 2020 made my children sensitive to other’s needs.

As we step into the New Year, I thank the universe for all the learnings that were imparted and send out a prayer for hope. May the coming year be filled with hope for the world and new opportunities to grow for each one.

Let us grow as human beings and be more sensitive to the needs of the other – human, creature and nature. Nature took the lockdown period to heal, reset and reclaim; we need to contribute and help heal the world and ourselves.