Something else I learned

Somewhere warm
iPad drawing
8 x 10 inches
Barbara Muir © 2020

Another thing I Learned in 2020

In so many ways this year, that everyone is saying they can’t wait to end,
has taught me so much. Maybe it did that for all of us. The number one thing
we can be grateful for if we are well, and have not contracted the virus, is
that we have our health. For so many people this virus has meant the absolute
opposite.

My family have been so wonderful about doing whatever we have to do to get
together for the big occasions like birthdays, and now Christmas. In the current
lockdown we can’t have anyone who doesn’t live inside our family house come
inside.

I told you that on Saturday night we had a full Christmas dinner with Sam and
Emily on the back  porch. It was cold and we did everything we could to withstand
the cold and still enjoy dinner socially distanced, masked except when we were eating.
Afterwards I checked out the weather, and discovered that we'd been sitting outside for
two hours eating, then exchanging gifts in minus 4 degrees Celsius weather. 

Today, in what they say was the equivalent of minus 6 Celsius with the windchill,
we sat outside with Christopher and Megan and the two girls giving each other
presents, talking, and having fun. I think we are lucky to be such stalwart Canadians
that we still got together in below zero weather. And I am aware that we were especially
lucky that it wasn’t -30°C, which can often happen at this time of year. 

What I learned is that love makes you willing to learn how to manage even under
difficult circumstances. (And of course as a mother, wife, daughter, sister and friend
I have learned that before.  But this year gave the whole idea a new twist.) And also
we were aware the whole time that what we were enduring in order to have any time
together is nothing compared to what people are living through who contract this virus,
or who lose family members to the disease.

Let's all get ready for happier New Year.