Well, 2020 has been quite a year...
Between rampant wildfires and other extreme weather events across the globe, racial protests that spanned the nation and beyond, a particularly divisive election season, and, of course, a global pandemic, many people are looking forward to saying goodbye to 2020.
However, there are also many things to be grateful for this year, and as I compiled my annual "gratitude list," I thought I would do things a bit differently this year. There are so many things I am thankful for every year, but this year, I have the opportunity to take a new perspective and find the silver linings in something that has negatively impacted all of us in some way.
Below are 5 things that COVID-19 has given me to be thankful for in 2020:
Between rampant wildfires and other extreme weather events across the globe, racial protests that spanned the nation and beyond, a particularly divisive election season, and, of course, a global pandemic, many people are looking forward to saying goodbye to 2020.
However, there are also many things to be grateful for this year, and as I compiled my annual "gratitude list," I thought I would do things a bit differently this year. There are so many things I am thankful for every year, but this year, I have the opportunity to take a new perspective and find the silver linings in something that has negatively impacted all of us in some way.
Below are 5 things that COVID-19 has given me to be thankful for in 2020:
1. More Time with Molly Brown
Although we don't like to acknowledge it, our sweet pooch is growing older... She just turned 10 this fall, and has plenty of gray whiskers to show for it. She has had a few health problems over the years, which seem to be getting more frequent recently. While we still hope to have her around for some years to come, this spring it was such a blessing to get to work from home and be with her every day. She loved all the extra time with us, and seemed happier than I have seen her in some time. (Of course, she got depressed and wouldn't eat for a while when we both went back to work in the summer.) :-( No matter how long we are blessed with her presence, I am so appreciative that for 3 months we both got to be home with her all day!
2. The Ability to Raise Baby Chicks
While we had already been planning to get chickens this year, I didn't realize how hard it would have been to raise baby chicks if we had both been at work full time... They required so much attention - especially frequent water changes, as they regularly spilled their water or filled it up with bedding every few hours. Thankfully, we had 6 weeks at home with them when they were babies, and by the time we both went back to the office full-time, they were big enough to go out into their run during the day. It would have been so difficult and they may not even all have survived if we had left them alone all day for those first few weeks, so the timing was perfect, even though of course we couldn't have planned for a pandemic and global lockdown!
3. More Time (and Money) for Home Projects
We had initially planned to go to Jamaica this year for my husband's 50th birthday. As our trip was scheduled for late March, of course that didn't happen, which was a great disappointment. We ended up losing the money we paid for our flights, but were able to get back what we had paid for the resort, which we are now able to spend on getting our foundation fixed - a big project which we have been putting off for a while.
We also had plenty of time to finish the chicken coop and run, set up fencing for our chickens to safely roam, re-stain the house siding, and convert the old outhouse into a chicken feed shed - along with all of our many other regular yearly home and garden tasks. While we may have accomplished some of these things anyway, having the extra time at home and extra money on hand made it much easier to complete these projects.
4. Staycations!
While I had been looking forward to Jamaica for some time and was sorely disappointed when we didn't get to go, 2020 made me appreciate the value of a staycation. Since the only trip we took this year was a weekend trip to Tennessee, I had many vacation days to use up. Most of these I took in the fall - by far the busiest time on the homestead - and it was wonderful to have so much time to complete my fall garden tasks!
From harvesting and mulching, to stacking leaves, planting extra fall crops, preserving all manner of foods, and building additional compost piles, there have been so many things that I was able to accomplish in a timely and stress-free manner this fall thanks to having extra time off that I would normally have used for vacations. I even accomplished several additional business projects that I normally wouldn't even have been able to consider this time of year.
That said, I did miss getting away and seeing family, so now I just need to figure out how I can do that next year, and still have extra time off at home in the fall...hmm...
5. A Deeper Appreciation for the Natural World
As I have grown older, I have truly gained a deeper appreciation for many things such as family, my body, my health, etc. I've always been very appreciative of the natural world from growing up in such a natural/wild setting, but this year brought a slightly different perspective.
Driving down empty streets through ghost-like areas of town on my few outings last spring was a surreal experience. However, coming home always brought back a sense of normalcy. No matter what was happening in the world - lock-downs, quarantines, business shut-downs - nature went on as usual.
While we felt frozen in time for 3 months, trees leafed and flowers bloomed and the world came alive and summer arrived. The inevitable cycle of seasons marched on. The garden grew and flourished, the chickens got bigger, and bigger, and eventually started laying eggs.
As a human, this inevitability made me feel insignificant, but at the same time, comforted. No matter what happens in the human world, the natural world will always be there, doing its thing, and that provides a feeling of stability that helped me stay sane during the isolation, and keep a (mostly) positive perspective during the months that followed.
It's true that 2020 was quite a challenging year on many fronts, and we will still face many challenges in the months ahead. But whatever challenges we face, it is important to keep perspective: this, too, shall pass. The road ahead may be rough for a while, but we WILL come out the other side - hopefully as a stronger, healthier, more resilient nation, better able to face any challenges that may come our way in the future.
In the meantime, I am thankful for YOU, dear reader, and I wish you health, peace, happiness, and love this holiday season and beyond!
Rose.
Although we don't like to acknowledge it, our sweet pooch is growing older... She just turned 10 this fall, and has plenty of gray whiskers to show for it. She has had a few health problems over the years, which seem to be getting more frequent recently. While we still hope to have her around for some years to come, this spring it was such a blessing to get to work from home and be with her every day. She loved all the extra time with us, and seemed happier than I have seen her in some time. (Of course, she got depressed and wouldn't eat for a while when we both went back to work in the summer.) :-( No matter how long we are blessed with her presence, I am so appreciative that for 3 months we both got to be home with her all day!
2. The Ability to Raise Baby Chicks
While we had already been planning to get chickens this year, I didn't realize how hard it would have been to raise baby chicks if we had both been at work full time... They required so much attention - especially frequent water changes, as they regularly spilled their water or filled it up with bedding every few hours. Thankfully, we had 6 weeks at home with them when they were babies, and by the time we both went back to the office full-time, they were big enough to go out into their run during the day. It would have been so difficult and they may not even all have survived if we had left them alone all day for those first few weeks, so the timing was perfect, even though of course we couldn't have planned for a pandemic and global lockdown!
3. More Time (and Money) for Home Projects
We had initially planned to go to Jamaica this year for my husband's 50th birthday. As our trip was scheduled for late March, of course that didn't happen, which was a great disappointment. We ended up losing the money we paid for our flights, but were able to get back what we had paid for the resort, which we are now able to spend on getting our foundation fixed - a big project which we have been putting off for a while.
We also had plenty of time to finish the chicken coop and run, set up fencing for our chickens to safely roam, re-stain the house siding, and convert the old outhouse into a chicken feed shed - along with all of our many other regular yearly home and garden tasks. While we may have accomplished some of these things anyway, having the extra time at home and extra money on hand made it much easier to complete these projects.
4. Staycations!
While I had been looking forward to Jamaica for some time and was sorely disappointed when we didn't get to go, 2020 made me appreciate the value of a staycation. Since the only trip we took this year was a weekend trip to Tennessee, I had many vacation days to use up. Most of these I took in the fall - by far the busiest time on the homestead - and it was wonderful to have so much time to complete my fall garden tasks!
From harvesting and mulching, to stacking leaves, planting extra fall crops, preserving all manner of foods, and building additional compost piles, there have been so many things that I was able to accomplish in a timely and stress-free manner this fall thanks to having extra time off that I would normally have used for vacations. I even accomplished several additional business projects that I normally wouldn't even have been able to consider this time of year.
That said, I did miss getting away and seeing family, so now I just need to figure out how I can do that next year, and still have extra time off at home in the fall...hmm...
5. A Deeper Appreciation for the Natural World
As I have grown older, I have truly gained a deeper appreciation for many things such as family, my body, my health, etc. I've always been very appreciative of the natural world from growing up in such a natural/wild setting, but this year brought a slightly different perspective.
Driving down empty streets through ghost-like areas of town on my few outings last spring was a surreal experience. However, coming home always brought back a sense of normalcy. No matter what was happening in the world - lock-downs, quarantines, business shut-downs - nature went on as usual.
While we felt frozen in time for 3 months, trees leafed and flowers bloomed and the world came alive and summer arrived. The inevitable cycle of seasons marched on. The garden grew and flourished, the chickens got bigger, and bigger, and eventually started laying eggs.
As a human, this inevitability made me feel insignificant, but at the same time, comforted. No matter what happens in the human world, the natural world will always be there, doing its thing, and that provides a feeling of stability that helped me stay sane during the isolation, and keep a (mostly) positive perspective during the months that followed.
It's true that 2020 was quite a challenging year on many fronts, and we will still face many challenges in the months ahead. But whatever challenges we face, it is important to keep perspective: this, too, shall pass. The road ahead may be rough for a while, but we WILL come out the other side - hopefully as a stronger, healthier, more resilient nation, better able to face any challenges that may come our way in the future.
In the meantime, I am thankful for YOU, dear reader, and I wish you health, peace, happiness, and love this holiday season and beyond!
Rose.
RSS Feed