Can you believe it’s 2021 already? It seems just like yesterday when I joined thousands of excited parishioners in the church as we screamed Happy New Year into 2020 with our trumpets, whistles, confetti pieces falling from the ceiling, and echoes of excitement waving through the magnificent church building. Right beside me were my adorable daughters, somewhat annoyed that the excessive noise awoke them from their slumber; but they soon joined in the joyous chaos once I explained we had just crossed into a new year. Then again, it wasn’t just any new year, it was a new decade, the start of something glorious, the new opportunity to dream big and slide down the rainbows of endless possibilities to reach the pots of gold carefully laid out by exuberant elves.
January 2020 went as planned. We started on our resolutions, our goals, our desires, our dreams, ambitiously. February 2020 started just like any of its predecessors. Cold (at least in Bowie Maryland), yet with perseverance, we looked forward to the summer months. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with Red heart-shaped cards and flowers, chocolates and cookies. Some even, with diamonds and pearls. Oh! To be in love.
But then, right around the corner, faint whispers of despair roused. Something about a stranger coming from yonder the Pacific Ocean. We stretched our necks to listen; glued our eyes to the television and our ears firmly to the ground, wondering what this stranger wanted with us. By all standards, we were known for our "sanitary" practices so if anything, this stranger shouldn't find a place among us.
By late February, the whispers grew louder. Interestingly, back in January, we had received the first of its many gloomy messages in Washington State and looking back now, we should have paid more attention, acted swiftly and nipped this stranger's tentacles in the bud. Sadly, we lost sight of the storm that was coming. Coronavirus Disease…COVID-19, they called it. This monster of a storm hit us hard. It broke apart homes, dismantled lives and separated generations.
By mid-March 2020, we realized the magnitude of the storm that had invaded our lives. Because we a people created with resilience, we fought hard, we fought mighty and still fighting to sucker-punch the storm of COVID-19 to its grave. We. Will. Overcome.
COVID-19 may have thought it was coming to destroy us, but it didn’t realize its arrival would build us stronger; this virus didn’t realize it would make millionaires out of many. Neither did it realize it would create gazillion of business owners. I doubt COVID-19 realized how it has helped shaped our communities to be more compassionate towards each other (although a few of us still choose to be evil over being good…I’m looking at those who don’t value Black Lives!)
All in all, COVID-19 blazed in 2020 and boy! did it take some of our family members and loved ones. BUT, are we blazing so much brighter and gloriously that We. Will. Kick. COVID-19. Into. A. Thing. Of. The. Past.
So, as we crossover into 2021, allow the spirit of freedom ride through your veins. Permit the whispers of hope to saunter through your heart and mind. Birth determination in your bosom that whatever dreams were derailed by the raging storm in 2020, they can become a reality in 2021. Darling readers, IT. IS. POSSIBLE. Read that once again: IT. IS. POSSIBLE. See with your inner, spiritual eyes that IT. IS. POSSIBLE.
Now, turn off that television, put that phone and social media down, get off that couch (or bed, or chair) and begin. Unless of course you actually need these to start working on your dreams, then use them to chart the course of your destination, starting NOW.
Shalom.