“Celebrate the Good Stuff”
Early this morning I was listening to singer Tom Rush’s Rockport Sunday(s) program on the Patreon platform.
After this week’s featured song Tom talked a bit about the holidays. My interest was seriously grabbed when he closed with how this year, more than most, he believes it’s important we each take time to find and then “celebrate the good stuff” of this past year.
That suggestion stuck with me throughout my day. Then as often happens when an intriguing idea smacks me upside the head, I sought out my keyboard.
2020 certainly qualified as a mixed bag of a year.
Luckily, as I look back I can say rather than ‘the good, the bad, and the ugly’ it was more a year of ‘the disappointing, the uncertain, but also the good’ for me. As I thought about this it dawned on me each good item was brought about by something negative. So while I acknowledge many folks had, and continue to have, a bad time this year, I took Tom’s advice to heart taking time to find my good things to contemplate and indeed celebrate.
The pandemic certainly brought with it greater isolation in our society. I was lucky though. When I became a caregiver I immediately realized I had a hell of a lot to learn – but I didn’t know it would prepare me for the isolation and varying demands of our pandemic. I’d already learned how to cope with unanticipated isolation. Likewise I found myself already prepared for the demands of limited trips to essential stops like the grocery and gas station, skipping needed haircuts, and collapsing life down to necessities. Out of adversity, valuable ‘good stuff’ to celebrate having conquered early.
Then there was the stay/work-from-home requirements. Years back I had to buildout our downstairs to include a home office for my job as a remote fundraiser for an international NGO. That organization had its headquarters a dozen states away and I often heard the wisecracks about working in pajamas all day, not ‘really’ working, and more. Then this year home offices became the rage and folks realized remote officing was actually a workable option. The best was how my home office became work-from-home offices for our adult children and I got the benefit of a wonderful amount of family time along with seeing them for three squares a day. Plus NapaTheLab had months of her furry friends sharing her digs as their stay-at-home-kennel. ‘Good stuff’ times two on this one!
When I graduated, I left my fraternity (SAE) on campus decades ago and other than our ad hoc gathering a year ago, hadn’t actually given that group much thought. Then the pandemic nicely opened up some extra time for me to be able to dedicate to something. Quite by accident I discovered, at that very moment in time, our group could benefit from my skills in fundraising and marketing. It was incredibly satisfying to witness our almost impossible mission accomplished, even with a couple days to spare! This one’s a continuing story, but I can absolutely call this one another piece of the year’s ‘good stuff’ to celebrate.
Then there were friends of old. I grant you visits and travel had to be cancelled with future replacement dates TBD. However, in this age of wonderful electronics, we certainly recognized Ma Bell was right when she opined we had ‘the next best thing to being there’ and it wasn’t even necessary for us to wait until after 11:00 pm for rates to change! As I learned to Zoom, Team, etc. I frequently remembered as a youngster how I thought the epitome of science fiction magic would be if we could ever see the person we were talking to on the phone. Seems quaint now. So not only did I stay in better touch with friends of old, but I had the time to seek out some treasured friends I’d fallen out of touch with and renew those long absent friendships. Topping off this good news, I was astonished when one of those friends of old was one of the cherished, but missing, individuals I wrote about in “Wondering”. This reconnection is especially deserving of celebrating as ‘good stuff’!
As we glide deeper into the holidays and approach the New Year, I’m hoping everyone can find something, big, small, or tiny, which will be a cause for you to celebrate your own ‘good stuff’!
Peace, love, and tie-dye