Saghar Setarehのインスタグラム(labnoon) - 1月1日 05時12分

Too many things have been said about #2020; in long, heartfelt articles, rants and memes. In analysis’, based science and psychology and sociology. On social media, on zoom, on the phone, and scarcely, in face to face conversations.

By no accounts think that I’m oblivious to the lost lives and livelihoods; the feeble incomes and the failed businesses, to the solitudes and to the ever so long isolations. The bubbles of agony, and the anguish of lockdowns. But please allow me to say that in my heart of hearts, my first feeling towards this calamity of a year, is gratitude.

First and foremost, for being alive, and still here to express an opinion now. Because, easily, way too easily, I could not have been here now. A few steps on the crosswalk under my house towards the supermarket would’ve seen to that, if I hadn’t been mercifully lucky.

I am grateful to that first lockdown in a full leg cast, barely able to wash up, because it was then for the first time I liberated myself from the untruthful notion of “being alone”. I finally felt it in my partially fractured bones. I wasn’t, and I had never been on my own. People showed up, in ways and numbers I had not anticipated, despite a world in shock and quarantine. It’s a thought pattern that I harbour along, but now that I've touched the truth, it’s easier to break out of.

And then I’m grateful for my book deal, not just because of the accomplishment it represents, but because it gave me an opportunity to LEARN that what they say about pushing forward and really stepping out of your comfort zone and saying many no’s to what is not true to your essence, finally, eventually, gives back results. It doesn't mean it’s easy or fun all the time, but it does happen, in the end.

Now let’s dream on! #2021 should be the year we take back the streets, and the markets, and the dance floors and the theatres and the museums. This should be the year we’ll savor all the hugs and kisses we’ve missed. That sometime, along this year, we’ll be given the chance to forget what we had to endure in 2020. Here’s to that day. Happy, happy new year, a better year, to you all!

Pictures from last trip. Bolsena, early January 2020.

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