Ring out the old...bring in the new!

Lots of posts about how 2020 was a terrible year and how a new year brings some new hope, as if suddenly changing the last digit at the end of the date from 0 to 1 makes all the problems of the last few months go away.

Let’s be realistic…it doesn’t. We are still in the same dire situation we were in yesterday, and may be like this for a few weeks.

Shutting our eyes at the end of one year and opening them at the start of a new year makes no difference. It’s just another day.

So why have there not been more posts about the positives that came out of 2020? Because believe it or not there were some:

- We connected with our families in a completely different way. We looked out for our elderly relatives and ensured they were looked after.

- We tried to help people in our community, and in a lot of cases we got to know our neighbours

- We started to appreciate people who work for the NHS, at care homes, even at supermarkets.

- We realised that our health, and our family’s health, is more important than anything else that we believed was important before.

- We spent more time talking to people, whether by Zoom or any other platform, and we tried to be social with them on a more regular basis even if it had to be virtually.

When the smartphone arrived in our lives, and social media became a normal means of correspondence, we started to forget the important things in life – health, family, love, care and attention.

I think the world has opened its eyes to all of this, and I think the world needed it.

Hopefully the vaccine will arrive quick enough that we can get on with our lives again, but hopefully in a ‘new normal’ where we appreciate each other more, and appreciate the important things in life!

I wish you all health and happiness in 2021. I look forward to connecting in person with as many people as possible this year as I didn't do enough of it before Covid came along

Most importantly, I look forward to travelling again and seeing those people I miss around the world!