The Year That Was - Count Your Blessings

satchitananda · Dec 31, 2020

Goodbye 2020!

No, I am not here to enlist all the horrible things that happened in our version of “Annus Horribilis”. Many good things happened too. No, earth did not exactly turn into Utopia, but it certainly helps (definitely does not hurt) to count our little blessings.

Yes, Covid struck. Yes, some family, friends, family of friends were afflicted, some moved on to another dimension. Yes, the circumstances of their death were very unfortunate. But look at the other side. So many of us are here to bid farewell to the last year – though I know many who want to kick it out!!! We survived. We did not contract the infection, many of our dear ones who got infected made it, without much ado.

Nature got a well-deserved break from the activities of her badly-behaved, narcissistic children, the Homo sapiens while her other repressed children got a chance to breathe freely for a change. The air turned purer – well, at least for a while. The Homo sapiens were grounded giving them a chance to rethink their behaviour. Like all children, there were some who did utilize it, while others blissfully carried on as before after the lock-down was lifted. To them, all I can say is, GET WELL SOON.

We learned that we can work from home, thereby saving time on commuting to offices, electricity and fuel. Some of us (those who were not spending longer hours at work at home than in office) learned to utilize that extra time to develop hobbies. People grew more health conscious, turning to our roots for healthy food habits. Sure, some say they gained weight sitting around at home, though others lost a good deal of chub from having to work without the ubiquitous ‘bais’ (domestic helpers).

The Covid pandemic forced us to get our acts together, arranging for more wide-spread medical care facilities, speeding up research to find effective medications and vaccines against the infection. Ordinary people in various walks of life showed their true grit and mettle battling to keep essential services going – the so-called ‘Covid warriors’. They showed us a face of humanity that has become rare. While the reverse also held true, I shall not go into details about that here – there are enough people around doing that!!!

Earthquakes and weather disasters did not spare us, but we are having a real winter. While some of us enjoy the winter from the warmth of our homes, there are many out there who are dying due to the cold. This is a moment to spare a thought for them and to help in whatever way we can.

The economy plummeted, hurting many pockets, but hey, they many of them (unemployed) are still alive, giving them hope of a better tomorrow as we emerge from the pandemic – slowly but surely.

And FINALLY, the vaccine against Covid is here. May this herald the end of the pandemic, economic recovery, lots of travel, meeting near and dear ones and most importantly A MORE CONSCIOUS LIFESTYLE.

Here is wishing all of us a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR with more happiness and fewer disasters of any kind.

Mistt · Dec 31, 2020

Hi Satchi,
Nice snippet on seeing something good in Everything and we need to mold ourselves to survive in the worst situation. Hope for 2021 brings normality back in our lives. Happy New year!

satchitananda · Dec 31, 2020

Thanks a lot Mistt! Wish you the same!

HariLakhera · Jan 1, 2021

We must keep counting our blessings with HOPE.

joylokhi · Jan 1, 2021

satchitananda said: ↑

Goodbye 2020!

No, I am not here to enlist all the horrible things that happened in our version of “Annus Horribilis”. Many good things happened too. No, earth did not exactly turn into Utopia, but it certainly helps (definitely does not hurt) to count our little blessings.

Yes, Covid struck. Yes, some family, friends, family of friends were afflicted, some moved on to another dimension. Yes, the circumstances of their death were very unfortunate. But look at the other side. So many of us are here to bid farewell to the last year – though I know many who want to kick it out!!! We survived. We did not contract the infection, many of our dear ones who got infected made it, without much ado.

Nature got a well-deserved break from the activities of her badly-behaved, narcissistic children, the Homo sapiens while her other repressed children got a chance to breathe freely for a change. The air turned purer – well, at least for a while. The Homo sapiens were grounded giving them a chance to rethink their behaviour. Like all children, there were some who did utilize it, while others blissfully carried on as before after the lock-down was lifted. To them, all I can say is, GET WELL SOON.

We learned that we can work from home, thereby saving time on commuting to offices, electricity and fuel. Some of us (those who were not spending longer hours at work at home than in office) learned to utilize that extra time to develop hobbies. People grew more health conscious, turning to our roots for healthy food habits. Sure, some say they gained weight sitting around at home, though others lost a good deal of chub from having to work without the ubiquitous ‘bais’ (domestic helpers).

The Covid pandemic forced us to get our acts together, arranging for more wide-spread medical care facilities, speeding up research to find effective medications and vaccines against the infection. Ordinary people in various walks of life showed their true grit and mettle battling to keep essential services going – the so-called ‘Covid warriors’. They showed us a face of humanity that has become rare. While the reverse also held true, I shall not go into details about that here – there are enough people around doing that!!!

Earthquakes and weather disasters did not spare us, but we are having a real winter. While some of us enjoy the winter from the warmth of our homes, there are many out there who are dying due to the cold. This is a moment to spare a thought for them and to help in whatever way we can.

The economy plummeted, hurting many pockets, but hey, they many of them (unemployed) are still alive, giving them hope of a better tomorrow as we emerge from the pandemic – slowly but surely.

And FINALLY, the vaccine against Covid is here. May this herald the end of the pandemic, economic recovery, lots of travel, meeting near and dear ones and most importantly A MORE CONSCIOUS LIFESTYLE.

Here is wishing all of us a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR with more happiness and fewer disasters of any kind.

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Very true. However there is no denying the fact that for almost everyone, the wish that we need never again have to go through another year like 2020 that has created havoc in the lives of so many although we may not have been personally affected.
Heres, wishing all at IL a very happy and fulfilling new 2021 ahead.

satchitananda · Jan 1, 2021

HariLakhera said: ↑

We must keep counting our blessings with HOPE.
Click to expand...

Very true. Thanks a lot sir.

satchitananda · Jan 1, 2021

joylokhi said: ↑

Very true. However there is no denying the fact that for almost everyone, the wish that we need never again have to go through another year like 2020 that has created havoc in the lives of so many although we may not have been personally affected.
Heres, wishing all at IL a very happy and fulfilling new 2021 ahead.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Joylokhi. Really nice to see you. Been a long while, though that has really been due to me.

iyerviji · Jan 1, 2021

My dear Satchi

Awesome post well written. Yes we should count our blessings. But we learnt a lot in 2020..Hope 2021 will be healthy and happy
.

satchitananda · Jan 1, 2021

Thanks a lot, Vijima!

Viswamitra · Jan 1, 2021

Dear Satchi,

Wish you a wonderful new year 2021. Very well written snippet. It is so pleasing to see your colorful photograph. I know you went through tense times when you learned the effect of COVID-19 but at the same time enjoyed spending time with your husband whenever he worked from home. Loneliness is one of the biggest factors that influence the mental health of seniors even though you still have a long way to go to reach the coveted status of a senior.

I am still aggressively debating with those who notified me that nature made a correction to the misdemeanor committed by the Homo sapiens that COVID-19 is manmade and has nothing to do with nature. However, as you rightly pointed out the nature earned its breathing room without much pollution which was making a gaping hole in the Ozon layer. COVID-19 taught us that we need to watch what we put into our mouth (thanks to Chinese), how to wear a mask and go through the airport security and travel on the plane, how to make a journey inwards to discover ourselves, how to interact with friends and family virtually without any physical interaction, how to order things to be delivered to our doorsteps, and how to spend more time with pets and plants which they very much deserve.

Zoom meetings nowadays are attended by the children and pets making the businesses understand that family comes first. Humanity is grateful to see a set of people are ready to face the battle to save lives showing what true sacrifice is all about reminding humanity about relearning gratitude. When economies went through the cycle of growth and recession regularly, humanity was stagnant with selfishness and this pandemic pressed a reset button for humanity to progress helping each other.