It’s hard to believe we’ve been living this quarantine life now for 10 months now. I can’t help but feel a touch of nostalgia for the days of celebrating with family and friends in-person, filled with plenty of good food and great conversation. I miss the carefree days we left behind way back in March. I miss browsing inside bookstores…and maybe getting sucked into reading a book in the store for an hour before buying it, too😉.
And yet, I’m certain I wouldn’t have grown as I did, and certainly would not have written this much. My goal at the very beginning of 2020 was simply to start writing again. When I first started writing this blog series I had no idea how many months, or weeks, I would continue. All I knew was that I had additional time on my hands I hadn’t previously had and wanted to make the most of it. I wanted this blog series to be a space to help me process my thoughts and reflections with the hope that it would be relatable for those reading as well.
Consequently, I have grown so much more than I could have hoped; in the bonds I hold with close friends, in the moments of laughter and tension I’ve shared with family, and in the continual process of learning how to treat myself with much more generosity and grace than I have previously.
As I shared in my previous post, winter is usually a time of anxiety for me. However, this year, in being able to work from home I’ve been able to avoid some of the dread that is accompanied with winter driving, and have found a lot of beauty, stillness and peace in walks.
I’ve been so inspired by different artists, authors, activists and faith leaders in my writing this past year. Thanks to quarantine life and having more time on my hands at home, I’ve found myself reading more books this past year than I had anticipated. Here’s a list of some of my favorites.
My favorite reads in 2020 (listed in no particular order)
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich – Historical Fiction
1919 by Eve Ewing – Poetry/Historical Non-fiction
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee – YA Historical Fiction
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell – Non-fiction/Self-help
A Burning by Megha Majumdar – political fiction
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates – historical fiction/magical realism
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa – Speculative fiction
As we begin 2021, I’ll leave you with a few songs that have inspired me this winter so far and this beautiful poem by renowned poet, Naomi Shihab Nye.
Songs
Poem – “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
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Stay curious. Stay awake. Be good to one another. Be kind to one another. May 2021 be a year of hopeful new beginnings for us all. And, may you always have someone who will walk by your side, even through freezing temperatures. 🙂
Seeds of Hope 
Thanks Sarah, keep on writing, you bring hope and inspiration to many. Happy new year to you and Long Kee.
Love, Uncle Dan and Aunt Kathy