Tiny Bubbles

With everyone thankful that 2020 is over (or soon to be for those of us on the west coast), here are 5 things that were positive in 2020: 
1.   Space X successfully launched two astronauts into space, the first time in nearly a decade that a rocket has launched from U.S. soil.
2.    One of the greatest scientific accomplishments in history was made with the roll out of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccinations. Other vaccines are also being fast-tracked around the world.
3.  Dolly Parton donated $1 million to help fund Moderna’s COVID vaccine.  
4.   NASA named its Washington, D.C. headquarters after Mary W. Jackson, it’s first black female engineer.
5.  Healthcare workers became our heroes. 
 
As we move into 2021, I would like to share a few thoughts, some which were inspired by a friend’s blog about 2020:
 
As we close a year none of us could ever have imagined, a few things I’ve noticed:
 
1.  No one has ever done this before.  No world leader.  No private citizen. No healthcare worker.  No teacher or business leader.  No one.
2.  No one will get it all right.  No one has also gotten it all wrong.
3.  No one likes it. 
4.  We have all had to listen, learn, experiment, and then listen again.  We have had to learn, adapt, then do it all over again.
5.  “Progress” has become the new definition of “Success”.
6.  Like riding a bike uphill, there has been overwhelming resistance.  This is hard.  It’s dishonest to admit anything less. 
7.  So much loss.  As individuals, communities, cultures we are all still reckoning with what’s being lost. 
8.  There is always more to anyone’s story.  And if you knew it, it would break your heart (no matter how they voted or chose to manage the pandemic.)
 
Looking ahead, we realize too that:
 
1.     It’s not over yet.  (big sigh)
2.     Things will never be the same, and we don’t yet know that the future will look like.
3.     We will never be the same, and we are learning that maybe we don’t want to be.
4.     We all long for something stable, that won’t be shaken.  We all long for something we can believe in again. 
 
This has been a “wake-up call” to us, individually as well as citizens of the world.  What each of us does with this “wake-up call”, in 2021 and the coming years, will say much about our resilience, perseverance and character. 
 
I wish you all a very Happy 2021, and here’s hoping that you have heard and are responding to your personal “wake-up call”.