Farewell 2020

I spent some time today flipping through photos from the year and smiling at the little faces smiling back at me.  If you watch the news you might believe that 2020 was entirely without redeeming qualities.  I know that many people around the world have been isolated, have lost jobs, businesses and loved ones, and I in no way want to minimize that suffering.  I want to instead spend what's left of this year celebrating the bright spots in a pretty bleak year and look ahead, hopefully, toward a more promising 2021. 

It, in many ways, has felt like 5 years packed into one for us.  It seems like ages ago that our little snaggletooth first grader turned seven, before life as we all knew it changed.  

I am continually amazed by the resilience, optimism and steadfast faith of children.  You hear all the time, "they'll be fine- kids are resilient...", but as the year has progressed, it's been very clear to me why Jesus says in the in the book of Matthew that "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  Cut off from their schools, their church, their friends, their routines and most of their family, they still wake up ready for a new day and eager to find joy in even the simplest of things.  Ann Voskamp says, "there is unwavering peace today when an uncertain tomorrow is trusted to an unchanging God", and I think kids seem to get that truth on a very primal level.  Maybe having come from the Divine more recently than us old folks, they must sense it unconsciously.  

So here, at the end of this crazy, upside down year, I'm doing my best to take a page from their book.  Part of this full-timing experience was intended to teach Jeff and I to let go of our type-A planning selves, and move into being present with whatever actually is (because let's be honest, any sense of control in our lives is pretty much imagined anyway).  As it turns out, we'll get to learn this lesson before we ever even officially hit the road.  We're still crashing with family and our motorhome- that was supposed to be delivered in January- is now delayed for an undetermined amount of time (another casualty of the pandemic).  I don't know what 2021 will look like. I can't visualize what our cross-country journey will look like, because at this point, we don't even have a vessel for the journey.  Still, today I rejoice in what is:  a warm home, kids laughing, the smell of soup simmering on the stove, parents and grandparents who received a potentially life-saving vaccine this week.  I may not know what the next page of this chapter will hold, but I do know that my heart is full and I'm ready to read on. 

Wishing you and yours a 2021 filled with joy, connection, hope and growth. 

Love to you all, 

Jess