Making the Most of 2021!

Happy 2021! With the end of the holiday season and the beginning of the new year it felt like we were on the cusp of a huge release. I mean 2020 was such a tough year we were all looking forward to the new year and the endless potential that comes with it. then, in the first couple of weeks we had a re-vote in Georgia in which the democrats won the senate, a domestic terror attack on the capital and are impeaching the president for the second time! That is A LOT for the first 15 days of any year. It is especially a lot for the beginning of the year that was supposed to be a turning point and hope for the future. That said, I still think 2021 will be a turning point and full of hope, I just don’t think it is going to look like any of us thought it would.

Often times I feel like things get worse before they get better. We have lived the last year in so much uncertainty and fear for what was going on around us. That isn’t just going to melt away as we open up a new calendar. There are still many movements and ideals that we have to continue to fight for. We still have to stand up for justice and Black Lives Matter, we have to show our politicians how important environmental issues and climate change are to us, and we have to continue to have the hard conversations and make the changes in our own lives. 2020 isn’t just going to fade away in to memory. All of the reckoning that began last year is going to continue into the new year. We aren’t ever going to go back to the way things were before that fateful year, but is that really what we want? If you had a choice right now to go back to 2019, knowing what you know now would you? Would you truly want to go back to the way our country was a year ago?

I wouldn’t. While 2020 was not at all how I’d hoped it would be I am still grateful for all of the learning I did and the time with family that I got. I am proud of the amount of growth that occurred in 2020. So, no. I don’t want things to go back to “normal” I want to create a new and better normal. I want to take the reflection and growth that I underwent in 2020 and be intentional with my time and actions in 2021.

My word of the year for 2021 is INTENTION (or intentional). I want to be intentional with my time and my thoughts. I want to be intentional in my fight for a more sustainable future with oceans bursting with biodiversity, not pollution. And I want to be intentional with learning from 2020, letting go of the bad and carrying forward the good. 2021 isn’t going to be some brand new clean slate. bits and pieces of 2020 are going to filter into the rest of time. But that is the beauty of life; you get to learn from your past and move forward with more knowledge and understanding.

Let’s move forward in 2021 with more gratitude and understanding. We have all had a tough year and are looking forward to some change in 2021. Remember that 2020 was a call to action. A chance for us to really think about what is important to us and learn how to implement it in our lives. Don’t let that reflection and realization go to waste! 2021 is going to be a good year, but you have to want it to be and work to make the most out of it.