A Muted Start with Good Intentions

 

It seemed somehow fitting yesterday, I'm unsure why, to wake to the full moon still in the sky, a beautiful pastel coloured sunrise and thick ice that refused to thaw all day. The end of 2020, a year in which our horizons closed in around us.

It was probably just as well that the Government decided to move most of the country into Tier 4, I really couldn't have contemplated watching jubilant Brexiters celebrating "taking back control" followed by the welcoming of the New Year an hour later, to the accompaniment of Big Ben's chimes.

Instead and after a short walk in the sub-zero temperature, it was somewhat snug and relaxing to know that the moon was beginning its wane, the air temperature was warming and that Brexmas or whatever name might have been ascribed to this particular moment in British lunacy, history or populism (choose your own option) was going to pass by without the anticipated fireworks.

So here we are on the first day of 2021. Normally I might have spent part of yesterday in a period of reflection, thinking about the year that had passed and the one about to dawn. Like most people, I'm rather glad to see the back of 2020. Of course, neither Covid nor grief know anything about year endings and new beginnings. A fresh digit on the end of the date, however, is  always uplifting and even if it really is just the day after the day before, January 1st is a moment to embrace positivity. With the roll-out of the countrywide vaccination programme, dare I say that hope for a better year even seems realistic?

I think we must all have learned lessons about our lives and ourselves in 2020. Lessons which hopefully we can put to use in the future. I've certainly enjoyed the leisurely pace of life that I experienced last year; the opportunity to stop, look and listen, touch, taste and smell. There's been time too for crafting projects and ideas that normally would get put to one side due to a non-stop schedule. Human interaction has been more difficult but pottering in nature has gladdened the spirits, even though I admit removing caterpillars from the Brussels sprouts did not compare to lunching with friends. Still I concede that in many ways, our aim of living more simply has developed apace from a year ago when we had probably reached a first world plateau beyond which we were unlikely to venture further. 

Most importantly I have learnt at first hand that we can take nothing for granted, not even life itself; we can be healthy one day and smashed to pieces the next. I have no idea what 2021 is going to lay at my doorstep, but I do know that I hope to be out and about if it comes knocking with a big brown window envelope (always the worst kind of post). It is hard to plan ahead in the present circumstances without risking disappointment but I do still intend to pencil in some events to look forward to, regardless of restrictions or weather. 

Of course, with sights lowered and the ability to derive pleasure from the smaller things in life, my resolution for 2021 has to be to get more from less. I'm obviously not thinking capitalist exploitation here, nor even a make do and mend mentality. Instead I want to clasp and hang onto slow (sustainable, local, organic and whole) living; to be nuzzled and caressed by it, whilst attaining as much happiness and fulfilment as I can from every day. A balance between energy and contentment, drive and reward, simplicity and ambition. Movement is restricted but Planet Retirement is still here to be explored.