Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I’ll be frank with you, 2020 sucked.
It was a year of challenges for the world as a whole, and for each of us individually. No one I know has come through this epidemic unscathed. And my heart and prayers go out to all of you who have lost a loved one because of it. If you’re a front-line worker, you have my utmost respect. I could never do what you do, I am not of the indomitable constitution necessary to work in your field. I’m a softie that gets queasy at the sight of blood, and I cannot bear seeing another living thing (animal or human) in pain. So that ended any hopes of a career in medicine for me. (Thank God!)
But a medical isn’t the only career that we’ve now realized is necessary when the world is turning itself inside-out because of this pandemic. Our service industries are vital to life, and we cannot survive today without them if they are not on the job. Grocery stockers and cashiers at our stores, restaurants, delivery drivers, postal workers and mail carriers, the produce stand vendors, plumbers, electricians, contractors… We can’t live without you. And you are some of the hardest hit professions in this pandemic, and you’ve endured it without complaining. We see you, and we respect you.
There are times that, as a writer, I feel what I do is insignificant to life. My work doesn’t compare in importance to what our medical professionals do, nor to what the service industries provide. But if I can bring a smile to a reader’s face when she reads something of mine after a hard day of fighting and slaying the metaphorical dragon of our era (this Corona virus,) then I will be forever grateful to the powers that be in this universe that caused our paths to cross.
As everyone else has, I too have had my own this challenges this year. Mine might be a little different from most, but I’m still here though, and getting better and am back to doing what I love—writing. I can’t tell you how painfully frustrating it is to be a writer unable to focus on work because of things happening in my world that are out of my control. Slowly, I’m finding my new normal, and am doing okay now.
There are two things that I’m SO looking forward to in 2021—seeing my two daughters, and my grandchildren that I haven’t seen in person for a year now, and finishing Marcus’ book, then starting on Christopher’s.
Let’s welcome 2021 with open arms and put all the challenges of 2020 behind us all now that we have a vaccine and a new president.
Happy Holidays!
Sandy Raven
