First, I want to wish everyone reading this post a Happy New Year.  Obviously, 2020 has been a challenging year for most of the world on some level.  For many of you, it has been a challenging year on multiple levels.  No one could have imagined a year like 2020.  I’m a writer and in my wildest imagination I could not have come up with a story that would have adequately described this past year.

However, I have seen several posts throughout social media that believe the new year will get us back to normal pre-COVID.  I have to disagree with that viewpoint.  2021 will be a year of transition into a new normal post-COVID.  I don’t know what that normal will be.  But it will be changed forever because of the pandemic.  And we all will have to adjust to what the new normal will be in the future.

I got a chance in the past few years to travel to Europe (London, Paris, Luxemborg City, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Mannheim, & Wiesbaden, Germany).  I’m hoping that I get a chance to make another European trip in 2021.  Also, I want to get to Salvador, Brazil too.  I’m thinking it will probably be 2022 before Europeans and South Americans allow United States citizens to visit their continents.

As much as I’m looking forward to a new year, I’m getting a sense that change always happens whether you are ready for it.  Whether you want it or not.  Life will continue to move forward and time waits for no one.  All you can do is adapt and embrace it.

Also, I would like to add that I hope grace becomes apparent in the new year.  We mostly use grace in a Christian context. But, I think there is a secular context to that word as well.  As I get older, I realize that I need grace more than ever.  Not cheap grace to cover up obvious wrongdoings.  But grace for being human and trying with the best intentions to being the best man possible.  You will fall short even in the eyes of those who love you.  What you can do is accept that failure and get up off the ground.  Start walking, even if those don’t know where you are going or can’t see that path you are taking.  Walk your own path.  Nobody can walk it for you. Just remember to treat others with kindness, respect, and honesty.  There will always be someone who will appreciate those qualities.

Happy New Year and may this transition year go much smoother than 2020.  The entire world needs it!