Stepping into 2021 with an open mind and heart
This weekly column seeks to help educate our community about emotional healing through grief. People may write questions to Golden Willow Retreat and they will be answered privately to you and possibly as a future article for others. Please list a first name that grants permission for printing.
Dear Readers: Today, the last day of 2020, is a gateway as we all step into 2021 with many different emotions, challenges, experiences and living situations. 2020 will be the year of the pandemic and everyone on some level experienced some sort of impact from COVID-19. It was also a year of high levels of political stress with the election as well as division between beliefs.
With so many disruptive and destructive moments happening, other systemic problems rose to the consciousness of many people as well. Homelessness, mental health, addiction, racism, hunger/ starvation, ageism, genderism and many more issues that seemed to be hidden to so many, and yet right in front of everyone’s eyes. As certain levels of our status quo of living and our perception of safety were shattered, fear soared as the unknown of everyday living was challenged. As confusion and the unknown rose, fear increased as well, and with fear there is a tendency to gathering with likeminded people, and separation and rejection from other types of thinking. Adding to this separation phenomena is COVID-19 forcing a higher level of isolatory behavior for health of self and others.
Fissures and crevasses within the foundation of everyday living have been magnified, causing anxiety, confusion, grief, anger and fear. This level of societal dismantling can be overwhelming and lead to understandable feelings of futility and may seem super depressing, and yet there is another side of the same coin. Where there is a destructive force, there is a high level of confusion with chaos, as the chaos moves out of shock, there is the opportunity for conscious reconstruction, personally and societally.
During this last year we saw amazing miracles happening as well, such as people rising from isolatory fear and finding ways to connect and collaborate to make the world a little bit better. We witnessed (and continue to witness) front-line workers continuously fight for each and every life; our emergency response teams going to work even with scrutiny and blame as well as danger to their own health; educators showing up and finding ways to keep the foundation of learning alive; businesses adjusting to new ways of operating; philanthropical actions to help at whatever level is possible; delivery people getting packages and mail to keep connection and necessities arriving; and yes, the vaccine giving new hope through the miraculous capacity of science and humanity coming together.
The side of the coin that holds hope, miracles, love, connection, family, community and humanity seemed to have been forgotten on many levels. 2020 has forced upon us the opportunity to remember the importance of honoring differences, collaborating the knowledge of all, and realigning intentions and actions to what serves the best for all. If we take a minute, as we step into 2021, and appreciate that most people have more things in common than the differences that divide us, we can listen with an open heart and mind, and from that place, make decisions that are humanitarian responses rather than fearful reactions. May we all take a breath and find the connection to all living things as we step into 2021.
I wish you well. Until next year, take care.