by Sarah Schwarz

For the last 100 years, this planet has never celebrated a New Year as meaningful and dramatic as this one.  The year 2020 in our Gregorian calendar was not easy, it was indiscriminate. Whether you are rich or poor, young or old, healthy or weak- we all had a taste of it, relatively, in different ways.

It’s a new year! But the effects of Covid is still lingering in the air. It will take time, a year or two perhaps, until 90 percent of the world will be vaccinated, and everything can get back to how it was post-Covid. But this time, it will be better! We pray that most of us will make it, when that time comes.

Now that we know how to tackle the virus, we may resume our lives. There are things we want to go back to, but definitely there are more things we found through this adversity that is worth keeping. Like our newly- discovered hobbies, businesses, hidden talents, and even inner peace.

We are re-learning everything. We have realized how good practices pays off. We can look back and appreciate those good practices like respecting one’s space through social distancing, and talking in low voices, as well as observing proper hygiene and cleanliness. These are modest practices we forgot. Even covering the hair, and faces, and protective clothing are now a much- appreciated practice.

Another thing is, we become closer and more connected than ever before. The digital world that we have lived in for so long become a space devoid of soul and authentic emotions. The glitch that the Earth has to go through allowed us to reflect on our relationship with the people around us. They matter after all. Their presence, after all, is vital to our existence.

The way businesses look at things will be different from now on, hopefully. We have seen the damage we have done by violating and abusing the environment, our natural and human resources. There will be more solid move towards greener Earth by reducing wastes and pollution. Manufacturers will be gearing towards reusable/ sustainable industry. Even more, we justified it with the choice of color for this year which is A.I blue, and sub- colours; coral, ochre- much like reminiscence of marine biosphere.

Last but not the least, this is a happy ending for the endangered exotic life because they will be spared from human consumption now that we learned that those guys are not food. And the other animal from the food chain will be a lot happier because we will not be eating theirs anymore.

Loss of life, wealth, comfort and things we used to do are no longer accessible but that’s okey, 2020 was a detoxing time for every living thing on this planet.

After the rain, there is always sunshine. But we need rain once in a while.