Farewell To The Dear, Damned 2020
when books find words you can’t, to describe how to go on after this annus horribilis
Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot.*
No quote could describe better how this year has been for me, for us, in fact. I doubt many people will come out of it unchanged. For better or worse, that remains to be seen.
Most of us are left with indelible body or soul scars on our way out. Because 2020 has challenged everyone. And the majority have lost something, someone, a part of them maybe. What we cared the most for, usually. A year of loss, as I would like to call it.
Then he looked at Florentino Ariza, his invincible power, his intrepid love, and he was overwhelmed by the belated suspicion that it is life, more than death, that has no limits.
But despite what has happened, the only sure thing is we have managed to get out of 2020. Others didn’t have this luck. And since we survived, our duty is to go on. Tell the story. Never forget. Live, live, and… live. Nothing else. Live as we think it’s possible. Live to make someone happy, to fulfill a mission, to improve what is important to us. Live not to let the heart die.
There are no second chances in life, except to feel remorse.
We might not get a second chance of telling the truth, being happy, laughing at a stupid joke, or talking about our feelings. We have to grab that “here and now” and hold it as much as we can because another 2020 could be around the corner, and we could still miss the opportunity to do things we can but lack the time or the courage.
Time has taught me not to lose hope, yet not to trust too much in hope either.
I hope this new year will be better. I don’t know if it would, though. But I have learned there is no other way to carry on through adversities except by taking one day at a time. Trying to feel slightly better each day, slightly wiser. Learning a little something. Donating a tiny smile. Doing things that give us joy, even for a single moment. The sum of those single moments will create a meaningful lot.
Keep your dreams, you never know when you might need them.
And sometimes, we are allowed to dream a little dream. I don’t really believe much in the “follow your dreams” cliché motto, but if a small dream has the power to make us happy, why not? We don’t lose anything by letting an innocent dream enter our soul and rest there waiting for the right timing.
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master,
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same.
It is difficult to accept hard times are coming. We try putting ourselves in denial mode for as long as possible. It is even harder to see things for how they are without influencing our perception with our desires.
We want to be happy and serene all the time. But life knows no always. It only knows sometimes. The faster we learn to cope with this and keep going, the faster we can recover from our big and small defeats.
Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus. And that’s fear.
I used to live in fear. Sometimes I still do, and I have accepted it. On the way out of this year, I discovered the more you feed fear, the more you are afraid. We have to let it starve. Just try. Maybe all the good things we are surrounded with will end one day. And so may the bad ones. Maybe we will get a no when we are expecting a yes. Throw the expectations away. That is particularly difficult for me too. Take a gamble, at least once.
Both wondered whether this was due to the cards they’d been dealt or to the way they had played them.
We do not need to fall from a building to prove we are risk-takers. Sometimes even the small gests take courage. Getting out of bed when you are weak. Taking a walk when you lack the spirit. Showing you care when no one is caring back.
Yes, destiny or casualty (whatever you call it) is cruel. But we have to see the light, even if that light is only inside our minds. Nothing can change if it stays the same in our heads. Nothing can change if we do nothing about it. We cannot let fear win. We cannot let pain win. We can’t even let fate win.
There is a way to be good again.
And each one of us should find his own way in this new journey ahead.
*Quotes in order of appearance:
Call Me By Your Name — André Aciman
Love In The Time Of Cholera — Gabriel García Márquez
The Shadow Of The Wind — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Shadow Of The Wind —Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Shadow Of The Wind — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
If — Poem by Rudyard Kipling
Inferno — Dan Brown
The Shadow Of The Wind —Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Kite Runner — Khaled Hosseini
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