Five more days of school! Eighteen more sleeps until 2021! Twelve more business days (give or take)! There's a level of anticipation, excitement....maybe even a sense of hurry in the world right now, don't you think? We are ready - more than ready - to turn the page on 2020 and start with a clean slate. Trending hashtags range all the way from #fyou2020 to #goodbye2020 to #2020sucks. It feels like everyone is ready to move on. And in some ways, I am too.
Just...
...not so fast?
If we rush too much to turn the page, will we miss our own Moment of Reflection?
I learned about the Moment of Reflection from my friend, Jennifer MacMillan, as I worked on honing my speaking skills (she's a tremendous coach and one of my greatest 2020 blessings, by the way). It's the meaning we take from an experience or story. Maybe it's a lesson. Maybe it's an insight. Maybe it's an observation or realization that leaves us forever changed. The moment of reflection usually only happens at the end of the story, as we look back and make sense of what we went through. Only as we look back on something, putting it into the context of the rest of our lives - our values, our beliefs, our prior experiences - can we truly understand what it was all about. What it offered us. What we find fascinating, intriguing, meaningful about it.
As I start to reflect back on all that 2020 was...and wasn't...all I experienced and did not experience, my own moment of reflection is admittedly, still a little foggy. There is one word, though, that has made its way into my vocabulary more than it has in any other year. One word that God has been whispering in my ear over, and over, and over. One word that I've been really working to understand and embody. This got me wondering about you? What one word has been reverberating through your world?
My one word represents the greatest life lesson I encountered, and the greatest challenge I experienced. This past year delivered a lot of memorable moments...many of them involving grief, loss, disappointment and yes, fear. Lots of fear. Those are strong emotions, and most of us held them all. Most of us held them all on a daily basis! But none of those words sum up the year for me. The word that captures 2020, for me, is savour. This head-shaking year taught me to savour.
Savour home-cooked meals.
Savour family games night.
Savour Mom-time.
Savour hugs.
Savour prayer-time.
Savour mid-day walks.
Savour the changing seasons.
Savour bonfires.
Savour puzzles and pets and letters.
Savour my backyard.
This was the year I learned to savour. I kind of suck at savouring, to be honest. I do life with a certain...intensity...and I can see now how that has made me miss out. This year, I learned to immerse myself in things and enjoy them completely. I learned to pay attention in a way I didn't even realize I was missing.
There's a certain level of anticipation, excitement....maybe even a sense of hurry in the world right now. We are ready to turn the page on 2020 and start with a clean slate.
And...let's not turn the page so fast, that we miss our moment of reflection?
For the next few weeks, I intend to be like that annoying driver doing 55 in a 60. I'll be taking my time to look around, process where I am, process where I've come from. You can sit on my bumper all you want, rushing me on to the next thing...but this Laura...2020 Laura...is not quite ready to turn the page. Don't rush me...
What about you? What word has 2020 been whispering to you?
Take your time. I'm not going anywhere.