Well, what a year 2020 has been! Has it not?

Here in Australia, my family and my in-laws kicked off the new year with a road trip which we hoped would go well despite the raging bushfires around the country. The drive from Sydney down the Hume Highway south to Albury was cloaked in a grey-orange haze as the smoke hovered throughout the state.

Then, as we traveled from one destination to another, praying the roads don’t close on us, praying for friends and family to be spared from devastation and loss, we vaguely worried about something called the corona virus. Far from the greatest concern of the moment, we said ‘meh…’ and were just glad to have found a place to stay last minute when two of our booked accommodations were cancelled last minute.

We made it back home, and by the end of January here Down Under, after lives were lost, hectares of forest and homes were burnt, some sort of relief came in the form of rain. Some of our drought-stricken areas were drenched, in fact flooded, with the effects of the downpour. More homes lost, more of our lives disrupted.

But this is the ‘sunburnt land’ … the one that sees floods after the driest of days. And for the briefest moment, it was just another summer survived, and we could look forward to a bit of cooler weather and go on with our lives.

But, wait! Not so fast.

As we begin to book our cruises, our winter getaways, our summer escapes overseas, this virus with the prissy princess crown that we heard about around the breaking of the new year began to rear its ugly head with a vengeance.

While we had just been told to travel and rejuvenate the economy of the places that the fires had devastated, the crowned princess of doom decided she had much more damage in mind. Stop travelling! we were told. Close international borders! Quarantine those arriving by plane — but not by cruise ship, they’re OK. If you cough, go home. If you sneeze, don’t touch me. Go to the doctor, but stay in the car. Wear a mask; don’t go out; work from home; keep going to school! Don’t visit family; but care for the vulnerable. Maintain social distancing, but remain connected.

And we’re all meant to work with these rules, these guidelines, these directives, these suggestions the best way we possibly could!

But, listen, I do mean it. Happy new year! If’ you’ve written off the first half of 2020, then at least take the start of the financial year as a new beginning. And despite — DESPITE — the fact that the second wave of Covid-19 seems to have hit harder, particularly in Melbourne, and at the time of writing in southern NSW as well, let’s not be too hasty in jumping to a negative conclusion. Sure, it’s hard to keep trudging on with such sad news every day. But, one day at a time. Take it a day at a time.

At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

And if you’ve got the opportunity to pick up your knitting, your paintbrush, catch up with your To-Be-Read pile of books, or get back into writing your story or learning something new online … do it! Just. Do. It.

I’m starting this ‘new year’ with a determination to fulfill a couple of things. Getting this website started was one of them.

One down; several to go.

I think … we will get through this.

 

Just a thought … with love,

Jacquelane