I Have Feet – What 2020 and this Pandemic Taught Me.

I believe that life is what you make it. This philosophy could not have been truer this past year. If you decided to allow the fear of a virus rule your life, than your world may have been one of restrictions for the past 10 months. If you decided to live in denial, than perhaps the theme of your life for 2020 was frustration, or even anger. However you chose to make your life this year was how your reality manifested.

What I chose for my life this year was to be grateful. I told many folks that this year I was blessed with divine intervention. It started just as the pandemic reared it’s ugly head in March. My part-time job at the little vintage shop where I had worked for almost 7 years was coming to an end. The owner decided to pull the plug when her lease expired in May. That I already knew. Covid-19 just hastened my unemployment status by a few months, but filling this void was a program in my country called CERB which provided me with an income for the next 6 months while I stayed safe at home.

My son, his lovely wife and my grandson live right next door to me. My daughter-in-law was pregnant at the time with my second grandson. The pandemic allowed me to be there for them as we welcome a new life into our family.

My husband, having time on his hands, built me a new garden bed out of logs that were left from the clearing of my sons property so we were able to grow fresh vegies for the family.

I was able to re-connect with my neighbourhood which I have lived in for 33 years after years of leaving daily to another neighbourhood to work. Socially distant coffee clutches outside with neighbours renewed my sense of place.

Yes, my plans for my own business were thwarted by a microscopic virus, but I was able to pivot my coaching and intuitive readings practice’s online and learned to embrace technology to continue my connection with the outer world.

And finally, just as the CERB program was ending for me, my hubby was contracted for a project he had been working towards and so was more than able to take over my income short fall.

The timing of everything that happened in my life this past year could not have been better and as I said, it felt like I was being divinely protected. A blessing that I am in full gratitude of.

Perhaps luck was on my side this year. Perhaps karma was kind. Whatever the reason, it still was my decision to choose how I received those gifts. I could have put on an air of entitlement and felt I was owed them. I could have totally overlooked these blessings and instead focused on the fear and negativity that was running rampant in the world, or I could have shrunk into a depression and hid in my own grey bubble of gloom. Instead I choose to except both the gifts offered and the restrictions hindering my original goals and make the best of it.

I only tell you all this, not to gloat over my good fortunes because I am well aware of the hardships many have had to face this year, but because it would have been so easy to overlook them, and therein lies the simple wisdom. No matter how small or how mundane they are, count your blessings.

For me, the biggest gift that I was given this year was the lesson that only being forced to slow down could ever offer. Because when I was made to stay home for days on end, and especially because I was blessed to witness new life with the birth of a grandson as well during this time, I remembered what truly mattered above all else – connection.

Connection to family. Connection to nature. Connection to the community that surrounds me and connection to a source greater than myself.

So if you are feeling bone weary of this pandemic and all the restrictions that it has brought to your personal life, have hope. If you have suffered loss during this world crisis – rest, grieve and allow a little faith into your heart to light the way forward once we overcome this dark chapter. But for now, no matter how small, no matter how simple, count the blessings of this day. Rejoice that the sun rose this morning, smile at the bird who flew past your window, or just thank yourself for making it through another day.

I leave you with one of my favourite quotes:

I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.

Persian Proverb

We all know someone who is better off than us. It is so easy to despair for what we do not have. Alternately, there is always going to be someone in a worse situation that us. Our own fortunes can change in an instant so choose to be content with what you have in this moment.

This is the greatest lesson for me from a year like no other and one I wish we never experience again in our lifetime. I have feet to walk forward when this pandemic ends. I have shoes to cushion those feet from the rough patches that may appear on my path, and in that simple knowing, I have gratitude that I have been given this life to experience where this journey may take me and the wisdom to learn the lessons along the way.