Good Bye 2020! Hello 2021….I Appreciate You Arriving!!!!

This is it! The final BLOG of 2020. The last one I will post to wrap up the year. It’s been quite the year don’t ya think? I could compile a list of stories that were reported by the media and let you take a stroll down memory lane. I could re-tell the biggest whoppers and show you how they turned out to be in fact…. whoppers. I could spend a few moments highlighting the turmoil that we’ve all endured during these endless 12 months but let’s be honest….. wouldn’t we all just rather move along? Wouldn’t we rather just chalk this one up as the “year we shall never speak of again”?

I for one have never been so excited to see the clock strike 12 and know that this one is done! Finished! Kaput! The crazy thing about it is, if we were all “allowed” ….this New Year’s Eve would entail some of the most epic parties to ever occur. We could clean out the shelves of liquor stores buying every bottle of champagne to toast the finality of this crap storm of 12 long months. As we remember our last New Year’s Eve and how we celebrated the beginning of a new decade, we never imagined what was looming in our future. And that my friends is REALLY the story of the year!

We never dreamed we would mourn the death of Kobe and be forced to shelter in our homes in the span of 45 days. We could never have predicted that our kids would be prohibited from attending school, playing sports or having graduation ceremonies. We never fathomed that it would be legal to wear a mask inside a bank and ask for money but illegal to worship inside a church.

We never expected it to become normal to wear pajamas to our favorite restaurant because they serve it while you sit in your car and sometimes surprise you with a cocktail TO GO as a thank you for stopping by. We never imagined that the actions of 3 police officers in Minneapolis and the death of a man high on Fentanyl would result in cities across our country being burned, looted and destroyed. Who would have thought that what started as a movement to stop racism would become a rioting mob causing over $2 Billion in damages? ALL of those events that once seemed unimaginable became our reality in 2020.

I believe the lesson for us all is that our future is unpredictable. One never really knows what tomorrow will bring. We can make plans and we can look forward to events that will occur but the truth of it is…… you better celebrate TODAY because tomorrow may not be what you want it to be or even expect it to be.

That’s the lesson I’m walking away with when the clock strikes 12. I am thankful for the memories I’ve made throughout the year and I’m hopeful for the events that are planned in the coming months but I’ve learned to just take each and every day as it occurs and roll with it!

I’ll be honest with you…. that philosophy doesn’t come naturally to me AT ALL! I’m a planner. I’ve always been one to have a plan and I more or less stick with it until it’s complete. I had lists all over my house of things I needed to do and tasks I needed to complete. Well, let me tell ya… in March… those lists became useless scraps of paper for the most part. After talking to others I’ve realized that I’m certainly not alone in that respect. Many of us became slugs!

I had ambitions of cleaning out the attic, organizing our office, losing 10 lbs and other rather lofty goals. Well, I’m here to admit…. not a one of those things occurred. Not for lack of time…. because clearly that is the ONE thing we all seemed to have an abundance of. It was lack of motivation!

When you are labeled “non-essential” and your job is eliminated, your kids spend hours isolated in front of a laptop, hugging a friend or shaking hands with a stranger is considered a threat to society, and toilet paper has become a more valuable commodity than gold….. .. the things you “thought” were vitally important just really become NOT! So, my attic is a cluttered mess, the office is filled with papers that are lacking a filing system and the weight loss…. well, let’s just say the scale is a bit dusty.

In the final hours of this monumental year I’ve decided my 2021 word going forward is going to be APPRECIATION. Yep, that’s the one I’m going with! I’m NOT going to make New Year’s resolutions. I’m not going to set lofty goals that more than likely I won’t reach (because of the lack of motivation thing). I’m not going to wake up on January 1 and say, “This is the year I’m going to…..” because I’ve never had much success with that in the previous 51 years. So, I’m just going to “APPRECIATE”.

I will appreciate every opportunity I’m given to do things that make me smile. I’m going to appreciate the moments I have with my young roommates because they are growing up and flying the coop so the moments are becoming infrequent. I have always known that I picked the perfect roommate to spend my life with and I will appreciate him being beside me each and every day!!! I’m going to appreciate the time I spend with friends because they are the “sauce” in my life that make me smile and laugh. I will appreciate differing opinions from people because what a truly bland world it would be if we all agreed on everything! I will appreciate the blessings I receive and also appreciate the struggles I endure because BOTH make life interesting!

We don’t know what will happen this year and I dare any of you to even try to predict it because we all got smacked by things we never saw coming during this one! It’s been a heck of a year for our whole world…… let’s hope the next one is better for all of us!

Cheers to ya!

Wash your hands & QUIT TOUCHING YOUR FACE!!!!