Reflections on 2020 from the bright side <3

So for fun as we wind down this year of 2020, I wanted to focus on some things gained in the midst of so much change and loss.

We all have wept buckets over friends who have lost loved ones or can’t visit them except through a window.

We have simultaneously mourned and celebrated the drive-by wedding reception, funeral, and birthday parties for friends of all ages. 

We have drawn a line through sports schedules, concerts, family meet ups and watched our kiddos hang their heads and walk away when we told them they wouldn’t need those high tops and jerseys we were so excited about a few weeks ago. 

The flattening of the curve, the positivity rate, the latest tweet that set the world afire, the new CDC guidelines and listening to our various governors outline the stages of shut downs…all of these we are familiar with. 

But as we wind down 2020 this week, I want to just flip it and share some of the positives (and I don’t mean your drive-through Covid test results) that we can carry with us into 2021. 

You know I would love to hear yours and if I can share them anonymously, I will add them in as the week progresses! 

Here are a few to start the list of 2020 takeaways. And as always, some will be serious and some will hopefully make you laugh. Or both. 

Masks – they have, I believe, benefits beyond the mandate that is set up to protect the spread. 

1. Personally, I have thanked the good Lord for them when I have to stop at the few restrooms available when traveling. Since we can’t go in a lot of places, the resources for this necessity are well used. Even after we are free from wearing these awful things, I may carry one in my purse for the duration of my life for any and all visits to the facilities. 

2. I have finally mastered the art of looking people in the eyes when I talk to them.

It took awhile. Turns out I am a lip reader. I had no idea how much I rely on mouths moving to add to my ability to process communication.

But since the moving up and down of cloth in various styles proved annoying, I forced my eyes in desperation to meet the eyes of those who are speaking to me and it has been quite an experience. I do not have a poker face. You can read me like a book. So looking directly in the eyes of someone is like baring the soul to a microscope and it has stretched me. 

Often the eyes looking back at me reveal the depth of fear, anxiety, sorrow or a longing to be known well and understood. In the midst of isolation, God has used eye to eye contact to create a place of connection with others that helps ease the sense of loss of fellowship.

3. Conversely, the mask has become a safe place when I am overcome with whatever emotion might be rising up given the current setting I find myself in. I can lower my eyes that seem to tell way more than I would like to share some days and my facial expressions are safely protected from being read by someone who may not understand my whole heart. 

I hope I can remember when I don’t have to wear one that I need to monitor my facials better….

4. With the onset of winter, the dang thing is kind of nice to block out the frosty air and warm it a bit. That’s an unexpected perk that ranks right up there with the filter for the public restrooms bonus.

5. However, as I breathe my own air through cloth, I think of people who must wear a mouth covering for work or for religious reasons and I have developed a kind of wondering how it is for them. I have renewed compassion for those who are required to wear something that covers the face as they move about in all kinds of weather or work several hours while wearing a covering over the nose and mouth. I may be completely wrong about how it feels for them, but if it is anything like it is for me there is a psychological shift to put a cloth over my face and to disappear behind it. 

I feel it has given me a glimpse into other people’s daily reality and I hope I don’t forget.

6. Whoever in their wildest dreams would have imagined how quickly the manufacturing and marketing of masks would consume us? I marveled at the way every single company seemed to suddenly have a mask to offer with their logo on it. And who can forget those wonderful people who early on in the game whipped out their sewing machines and fabric scraps and made masks for us until the American Machine took over and saturated the market place with all manner of them.

7. I can’t believe how charged up and divisive we all have gotten over them. The little kiddos who we were so worried about are doing better than the grown ups….except Joely says every time “I hate Cobid and maks”

We do too, Joely Bear…

And finally, I also still laugh at my first reaction to an old film or commercial or photo where everyone is all piled together and breathing on each other and I gasp…

????!! What are they thinking??????

I wonder if I will ever get used to crowds, bare faces and breathing real air in public ever again?

Okay…that’s all I have for today. 

Have a good one and keep safe and healthy <3