Turning Back the Clock: Reclaim 2020 in 3 Choices

“This year, 2020 has been such a loss!” A ponytail sporting woman exclaimed, for all shoppers nearby to hear.

She wasn’t wrong. I thought of the cancelled weddings, refunded vacations, the to be college students who were taking a forced gap year and entering the third season of sheltering at home. Many normal routines remain altered or ended. I trudged out of the store with my essential items, disappointed at not perusing my favorite chocolate aisle to pick out a treat.

Count it as a loss, my brain instinctively responded.

With my manuscript crossing a monumental bridge this week, I cringe at accepting there is only loss. I wrote and edited a full-length novel this year. I helped to produce millions of COVID test kits at work. My yard is full of organic vegetables, flowers, and native pollinators this summer. Yet, my attitude toward 2020 is so negative.

An attitude overhaul is overdue. A level of acceptance for the permanent effects this global event will have on our culture is the only way to adjust and reestablish in the new spaces made.

Start here with me, through three actions to reclaim 2020 for collective gain.

Restore.

Since early March of this year, I have pushed myself, like many of you, to the brink. There were too many distractions hedging my vision for me to feel or notice how worn out I was. And then I met all my deadlines, scheduled time off work, and sat down.

The physical pressure in that moment was so intense, my only response was to fall asleep on the couch, face in a book, every light in the house on, unresponsive. Are you at this place yet? Maybe it’s fast approaching?

We need to restore ourselves in this season. Picture a full, healthy plant, outgrowing its pot. The vibrant plant will wilt. To bring health to the whole, the overgrown root ball must be torn apart and squished into fresh earth. Rip open some room in the places of your life where you keep butting into yourself. Restore healthy space in your routine and replenish the resources you need.

Revisit.

Mid July, I got this sense my internal compass was wildly spinning trying to find North. I reached for my journal to remember what had been going on in my life the past weeks. Surprise, turned into mirth. Page after page was happy news. Good things had been happening that I forgot.

Revisit the past couple of months. Scroll through the camera app on your phone to see what filled your days. Celebrate the good routines you established. Be joyful in the moments you might have too busy to stop for. An inventory is necessary if we are to push through many more months of our new normal. Instead of counting losses, revisit the gains, surprises, wins, and good times.

Reignite.

Surveying over the work I have done and knowing I needed rest, we are leaving town to get lost in the wilderness of north, North America. My creative candle is a stub, the wick cooling from an extinguished flame. The plan is to submerge, for a couple weeks, in a place that has been fueling my passions for most my adult life. If we are honest with ourselves, we know what sparks us to life. For some it is art, others nature, and a few more great food and fellowship. Go chase down your sense of wonder and see how you flourish.

I will not count 2020 as a loss. I pledge to make 2020 a year of pruning, growth, transformation, and restoration. To do this I must restore, revisit, and reignite the flame I forgot was burning within me. Give yourself the opportunity to rev up your power and drive. Think on what always pushes you to the edge of who you are and go after it.

So much tragedy and heartbreak will mark this year in history. We will not forget it, nor will we dismiss the lessons, value for humanity, and depth of emotion gained. The power in our reclamation is to prove that 2020 changed things for the better.