It’s Been a Long Year!

December 2020

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” — Walter Elliot

IT’S BEEN A LONG YEAR …

Understatement, right? Let’s look back to New Year’s Eve 2019 and all the resolutions we made and the intentions we had. Weight loss, new job, self-care, overall better health, less binge watching (insert your favorite show here), more patience, more kindness, etc. Under the best of circumstances, resolutions and intentions can be challenging. For instance, gym memberships surge in January but by early March, attendance begins to decline steadily until, if you’re like many of us, the nifty gym card access is just one more unused thing dangling next to the Kroger card on a key fob. Now, let’s add a PANDEMIC to the mix and it seems like resolutions and intentions went to the back of the line and our goal became to just do the next thing in front of us even if we didn’t know what that was beyond basic instinct. Shower, check. Breakfast, check. Email, check.  Obsessively watching the news, check. Go to work, check. Wait. Do we still GO to work? In its earliest inception, COVID-19 seemed like a gentle nudge to slow down, be more present with loved ones, breathe, nap, recalibrate and reframe our personal and professional lives. It slowly turned the corner from warm and fuzzy television ads to “Oh wow, this pandemic is HERE and it is staying and everything is changing and I’m scared, really scared”, and what about school and daycare, my job, my spouse’s job, the grocery store, rent, the best facemask, go to church/not go to church, cancelling major plans, loss of dreams and life goals, the inability to be with loved ones in new life or death and…on and on and on.

We so wish we had all the right words to neatly package this year and place it on a shelf and be done with it. That won’t work because, well, we are still in the middle of the pandemic and still churning on the hamster wheel that somehow makes us feel hopeful and terrified at the same time. Yet…here we are nearing the end of this long year. Amidst all the chaos, fear, and confusion, look at us. We are still doing what we love, we are practicing what we advise by doing the next thing in front of us, we are showing up, being present, genuine, and compassionate. COVID-19 has not changed that, not really. Perhaps it has enhanced it, even during our deepest fears about the unknown. Being needed by those in their most vulnerable and sacred moments somehow motivates us to tell the scary stuff to take a hike.

Who knows what this next year will bring? With all that has worn us down, scared us, stretched us, challenged us, or confused us, maybe we can sift through it all and take the best of what this past year has given us and weave it into our new resolutions and intentions.

Even though this Pandemic cannot be neatly packaged and put away, we can seek peace for THIS year in the ways that are most meaningful to each of us. A lit candle, a prayer, a poem, a walk, a song, a dance, puppies and kittens and horses, deep laughter and tears, or whatever gives you hope.

Let’s try, shall we?

Be Well …

Arkansas Hospice Employee Wellness Council (EWC) Keeping you Well – Mind, Body, & Spirit

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