Have you ever had a time in your life when you started to feel like “an old self”?

Perhaps there was a time when you were in shape and didn’t get winded climbing the stairs. So you start working out again and suddenly you’re starting to feel strong again.

Perhaps there was a time when you felt really connected to a spiritual entity. And you used to have a sense of peace and calm within. And then life got hectic and you got busy and distracted and you lost that feeling. But then, something happens, and bit by bit you begin reclaiming that part of you that you have missed terribly even if you didn’t realize it at the time.

Perhaps you are laughing more these days and taking time to have fun and all of this play is reminiscent of your younger years. So you embrace the childlike feeling of it all and soak it in.

2020 has been a year of reawakening for so many people I know, myself included. This year has taken us all by surprise. I mean, really, did ANY of you have “Global Pandemic” on your vision board last December? I’ll wait.

As we have had to change the way we do everyday things - shopping, school, socializing, and more - I can see how it has given so many of us time to pause and think about what is actually important to us. What actually matters in life. What we will fight to keep and what we can easily let go.

There have been battles along the way. Holding onto norms and social ideas that no longer serve us can be exhausting and cutting them loose can be even more so. We have had to face hard questions like, “How willing are you to change to keep this person / thing / activity in your life?” We’ve come full circle on social issues and started to travel around the cycle again.

We are all hyper aware of how our words and actions impact other people, both in a positive and negative manner.

Personally, I have been challenging myself to actually understand many values that I already have. I’ve been able to reframe some of them, go deeper on even more and completely eradicate a few. 2020 has been a year of impact, although it may not be have been the impact that I thought I wanted, it was the impact that I needed.

While I could anticipate some of the things that have happened to me personally in 2020, there were even more than I never saw coming. And that’s ok.

Because I’m still here.

Over and over this year, I have looked at my children and said, “We will figure it out.” It has become our 2020 mantra.

Completely different school format than we’ve ever had before? We will figure it out.

Can’t celebrate milestones the way we initially thought we would? We will figure it out.

A new home and a new reality? We will figure it out.

Having to relearn our priorities and how to express them in a loving manner while facing the anxiety-inducing scenario of isolation? We will figure it out.

And we have. Each step. And all along this journey, I’ve started to feel like an old version of me. More confident. More driven. More sure. More… me. My life is 100% different than it was one year ago. Most of it good, some of it not. But I’m still here. And I can feel myself reawakening a little more each day.

We have many more steps to go. But so far, we’ve figured out everything that has been thrown at us. And we’re confident that we’ll keep figuring things out as we go.

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