Wait! Let`s start again…

It`s so good to be back!  I can hardly believe that it has been only three weeks since I wrote my last Blog, and less than a month ago that our social feeds were full of GIFs and memes panning 2020 and begging for 2021.  There has been so much hope, so much expectation for 2021 to be a great year. A better year.

Perhaps no year in our lifetime has so much weight on it to perform brilliantly.  And yet, here we are, slam bang in the new year, with the new variant dubbed 501Y.V2 raising global concern, and the number of new cases in South Africa today on 14 880.  More and more people in our close circles have now contracted the virus. As someone recently smirked: “I`d like to cancel my subscription to 2021 – I`ve experienced the 7-day trial and I`m really not interested…”

Yes, who would have thought we would still be riding the “Coronacoaster” (noun: The ups and Downs of a pandemic.  One day you`re loving your bubble and baking banana bread and the next you`re crying, drinking gin for breakfast and missing people you don`t even like).

Nah, I won`t say it has been all that bad – except for not being able to spend time on the beach during our recent annual seaside vacation in Ballito and not being able to share a late-night bottle of red wine at the lovely Mythos restaurant as we always do.  (Between you and me, I was reaaaally relieved that “thanks” to Lockdown we were once again not able to take that ”thrilling” leap of 80m with the Big Swing at the Moses Mabhida stadium.)  Phew!  Next time.  Definitely.  Maybe.☺

The thing is, in spite of everything, I would still like to start this year on a positive note.  Call me naïve if you like, it`s okay.  I know there`s no “going back to normal”.  I know life is different now.  But we are armed with knowledge, understanding and hard lessons learned from this past year.  We are not starting 2021 with the complacent naivety of January 1, 2020.

We have managed this far, and we can keep going.  Of course, 2021 won`t reset the ills of 2020, but why can`t it still be a symbol of a fresh start?  In their book “Active Hope”, Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone say: “Active Hope is not wishful thinking.
Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued…

Active Hope is a readiness to discover the strengths in ourselves and in others; a readiness to discover the reasons for hope and the occasions for love.”  Macy and Johnstone describe hopefulness as a practice – something you do rather than have.  And since it doesn`t require optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless.

All of us have learned to live positively in the chaos of 2020`s storms.  We have all seen that whatever situation we face, we can choose our response.  I am not saying we should ignore the masks and the hardship and the disease and view every cloud as a cotton-candy laced fantasy and use positive thinking to ween away every foible until we become new-age “Ubermenschs”.

Positive thinking is not about pretending everything is good, which in essence is unrealistic.  It is quite the opposite.  It`s about seeing the world exactly as it is and learning to direct yourself in that world where many good and bad things exist.

…Am I expecting too much of 2021?  Am I over-enthusiastic and unrealistic to host a New Year Challenge in three weeks?  I don`t think so.  Maybe it`s just what we all need to make a new start.

But how do you “new year, new me” while you`re still in a pandemic?  Covid doesn`t really care about our calendars.  So how do we maintain the optimism of a new year in the face of last year`s problems?  It`s simple.  Set your goals as you would normally.  Even if it feels like the world is stuck in the same situation, it doesn`t mean you and I have to be.   

Last week someone posted this beautiful true story on Facebook: “A beautiful, well-versed 83-year-old lady, fully dressed every morning at 8am sharp, with her hair done in fashion and perfectly applied make-up, is moving to a retirement home. Her husband recently died, which motivated her move.

After many hours of patiently waiting in the hall of the home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.  As she moved her walker toward the elevator, she was given a detailed description of her small room, including the curtains hanging from her window.

′′ I love it “, she said, with the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old girl who was just handed over a new pet.

– Mrs. Jones; you haven’t seen the room, just wait.

– That doesn’t matter, she replied.

“Happiness is something you decide over time. Whether or not I like my room doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it depends on how I arrange my mind.

I’ve already decided that I like it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have the choice; I can spend the day in bed, going through the difficulty I have with my body parts that don’t work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the parts that do work.

Every day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I will focus on the new day and the happy memories I’ve stored just for this time in my life.

HAPPINESS is like a bank account: you withdraw from it what you deposit.

So, my advice would be to deposit a lot of happiness into your memory account.”

Maybe, in 2021, that`s the first thing we should all do.  Rather than asking how we can get happier, we should start asking how we can increase happiness all around us. 

The famous English classical pianist Gerald Moore once said: “A bad performance haunts the artist like a nightmare for days and days, and the memory of it is erased only by a good performance…”

Who knows, perhaps 2020 was just a series of bad rehearsals and performances for a show-stopping 2021.  We don’t know whether 2021 will eventually garner a standing ovation, rave reviews and a grateful and captive audience.

But I hope and believe that we will have enough hope for this year.  Active hope, a readiness to discover the size and strength of our hearts, our quickness of mind, our steadiness of purpose, our own authority, our love for life, the liveliness of our curiosity, the unsuspected deep well of patience and diligence, the keenness of our senses, and our capacity to lead.

And then, 2021 will determine indeed if 2020 did win.  Will we look back 11 months from now and feel different about ourselves?  Are you with me? 

Just remember, none of these can be discovered in an armchair or without risk.

Yours in fitness

Mirna

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