“This moment will just be another story someday.” Unknown
Your Year of COVID
This year is coming to an end, and yet the story of it will be kept alive for years to come. Everyone, no matter how much or how little they have suffered, will remember 2020 as the year of COVID.
The stories and films, the songs and performances, the creativity, and the innovations will be the petroglyphs depicting this time in history. Like all major events that cast their light and shadows on humanity, this year will be remembered. It will be remembered because historians, journalists, scientists, and the creative arts will see that it is.
I assume you receive this e-newsletter because of your interest in writing. Maybe you have started a journal or written a blog or possibly are writing a book about how this year has shaped you. Your story may include how you’ve suffered or been blessed. The sacrifices you made or the gifts you’ve received.
Because of all the suffering in the world, I have felt the need to count my blessings each night before I go to bed. When something goes “right” during the day, I find myself saying thank you out loud. I don’t take my health or my good fortune for granted as I used to. I have also become more aware of my need for others, and my interdependence with all life.
As writers, we have a tool at our fingertips to record the ways in which life has shaped our perceptions, our beliefs, and possibly our role in our family and society. I encourage you to write and record ‘the year 2020 through my eyes.’ What a great legacy would be to pass on to future generations? What a
gift it would be to have a birds-eye-view of the ways our generation met the challenges of the pandemic.
Good writing brings others into our experience through our vulnerability to express our unique reality. Though we all have the same basic needs, we view and express them through unique filters. It need not be lengthy. It does need to be authentically your experience.
If you choose to write about life as you knew it in 2020 and would like a platform to share it, send it to me, and I will see that you have one.
Though our holidays will be limited in many ways, may we all find a way to be safe, happy, healthy, and at peace. And, I wish you the very best for this New Year.
