PEr Chronicles: No matter how good or bad a situation is, it will change

“Vax” has been declared as the word of the year for the year 2021 by Oxford Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, which also publishes a word of the year, chose “vaccine.” How would you describe 2021 in one word?

Turbulent and challenging. Tiring and overwhelming. Fragile and unpredictable. Relentless, change and survival. Messy and lonely. Exhausting, exhausting, exhausting. These were the words that I have come across by people describing 2021.

So, what’s my one word to sum up 2021? Having recently experienced the thrills of Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike, Jurassic World VelociCoaster, Aerosmith’s Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and the Incredible Hulk in Orlando, Florida, my word is roller-coaster. With all those ups and downs, 2021 was a wild roller-coaster ride. If there is one lesson to take from 2021, it’s to expect the unexpected, normal may now be lurching from crisis to crisis.

People who don’t know my journey will say, “You’re so lucky.” Luck? Grace, I’ll credit, but not luck. You can compare yourself to those above you and whine or compare yourself to those below you and gloat or you can stay focused on that man or woman in the mirror and embrace his or her with gratitude.

It doesn’t matter what has happened to you, it matters what you do with what has happened to you. Life is like a poker game. You don’t get to choose the cards you are dealt, but it’s entirely up to you how to play that hand. One of my favourite movie lines is when the great sage Dumbledore tells Harry, “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.”

Don’t try to fill anyone’s shoes. The world doesn’t need you to be Mother Teresa, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Michael Jordan or Bill Gates. The world needs you to be you.?Don’t compare you life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

We’re all scared that we’re doing it wrong, that people don’t like us, that we’ll never be smart enough, good enough, successful enough, attractive enough. Don’t fight it. Make it roller-coaster scary. Enjoy the bumps, the wild turns, the ups and downs.

If 2021 is like a roller coaster, are we getting off in 2022?

One of my all-time favourite movie is The Shawshank Redemption. If I had to sum up the movie (and 2022) in one word, it would be this: hope.

In the movie, based on a Stephen King short story, actor Tim Robbins plays Andy, and innocent man serving a life sentence for killing his wife and her boyfriend. While in prison, the character endures beatings, gang rapes and devastating despair. The scene that struck me the most is when the two inmates, Andy and his best friend, Red, played by actor Morgan Freeman are sitting in the prison yard and Red warns him that it’s dangerous to hope in a place like prison. Andy, who harbours a vision of freedom refuses to believe him and decides that it comes down to a simple choice: “Get busy living or get busy dying.” The next time we see Andy, he’s in his cell clutching a rope. He’s either going to take his life or set himself free.

Life constantly hands us those two choices: get busy living or get busy dying. Which will you choose?

Trials and tribulations like cancer and divorce or loss of health, income or loved ones can either kill you or make you stronger.

Someone once told me the difference between a rut and a grave is this: a rut has a little more room to move around. When I find myself in a rut, I know I better get out fast before it becomes a grave. Life is too short for long pity parties.

The secret is not to get too attached to any of life, good or bad. The good time will come and then they will go. The bad times will come and then they will go. Our job is not to cling to one or to fight the other but to allow them both to teach us and polish us.

There’s an old saying people use to cope through bad times. “This too shall pass.” Most people don’t want to use that when it comes to good times. We don’t want them to pass. We want them to last forever But sooner or later, everything changes.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

Regardless of the analogy, life a wild, wonderful journey. In 2022, chaos can come, calm can follow, and then it can start up all over again. The secret is to savour the ride.

All of it.?