This year I am thankful for the lessons that 2020 taught me. Taught us. Hard lessons in love and loss. 2020 has been devastating in so many ways and goodness still exists. Even now. After all that.
We watched our country lose so much, shut down, and spin back up slowly, only to begin to shut down again. We tried to flatten curves by living life inside six-foot spheres. We saw our cities emptied. We saw the places that make up the routine of our daily lives go dark only come back and look very different. Our friends and loved ones were reduced to postage-stamp-sized boxes in video chat apps. We have all been touched by the loss that COVID-19 brings. Some of us have lost so much more. The families of 270,00 Americans will have a tragically different holiday season this year. 2020 was a year when a once-in-a-century pandemic fueled social and political unrest, an economy and job market in freefall, and increasingly severe weather events producing headlines rivaling any dystopian movie. Today, for all of us, life is much different than one year ago. We have lived a decade’s worth of history crammed into 12 months. This Thanksgiving feels different because it is different. For some, this year, it’s impossible to muster any thanks on a holiday centered around gratitude.
But 2020 has taught us that we are more capable than we ever knew. I don’t believe that an arbitrary date on a calendar will reset the course of events that have come to define 2020, but I am thankful for hope. We’ve made it this far. Winston Churchill famously said: ”if you’re going through hell, keep going”. Let’s all keep going.
I am immensely thankful for all the people I have worked with and for in 2020. The people in your network, your friends, and family are everything, and I am truly blessed. Happy Thanksgiving and here’s to brighter days.
© 2020 John Bulmer Photography + Nor'easter Films
