2021 Here we come!

Probably, like most of us, especially after the year we've had, I'm looking forward to the next one.
As if, come January 1st, the clouds will part, the sun will forever shine upon us and all the evils of the world will be erased. Sigh. Wouldn't that be nice?
It is nice to believe that with one movement of a clock hand or a flip of a calendar page everything will be somehow better, lighter, more easeful. Yet, the truth is that 2021 will have its good days and it will have its bad days, like every other year.
One of the miraculous things about this past year is that we've been made so much more aware (almost painfully so) of each day...each seemingly endless day. Made aware of the pains and the joys. The gains and the losses. The ups and the downs. And the everythings in between. The reality is that all of this occurs always, in every year. (With the exception of a global pandemic- luckily, that doesn't occur always, in every year.) 2020, in particular, because we haven't been able to go out as much, see our friends as much, busy ourselves in our routines as much, has given us the gift of allowing us to be present, to be acutely present, to the actual ebbs and flows of every moment of life. And ya, that's freaking hard.
To continually be present to our own experience of our life as it is happening is one of the most difficult things we can ask of ourselves. Which is why we generally don't. Given the choice, we most often choose to ignore what is happening as it's happening; choosing instead to distract ourselves from it, or wish for something else, something better to arise in the future. So isn't it nice that since we didn't get that for ourselves, 2020 took it upon itself to do so (like the essential oil diffuser you always think about getting but don't). 2020 has literally forced us to stay home and sit smack dab in the middle of ourselves, in our current experience exactly as it is, alongside our worst fears and worries, with nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.
And, well, what have we found from being forced to sit with ourselves all day, every day? That sweatpants truly are indispensable in a wardrobe, yes, but also that we're actually much stronger, much more resilient, much more capable of understanding what is truly important and valuable to life, within the daily pains and joys, gains and losses, ups and downs.
No wonder the English language uses the word present to signify both a 'gift' and 'to be here'. It truly is a gift (even if it is unwanted- "Oh thanks Aunt Mary! You got me that diffuser I always wanted!") to be present to your own experience. It is unique and unlike anyone's in the entire world. No one else will ever before and ever again experience what you do, from how you prepare your coffee or tea in the morning, or which clothes you decide to wear each day ('Sweatpants it is!'), to the way you laugh or cry or tend most carefully to what you love. You are a gift to this world, even if you are not yet 'present' to that knowledge. Your presence/ presents is what allows that gift to keep on giving. And the more we can be present to our own experience, regardless of what it is, the more we can live better, with more lightness and more ease, no matter the year. And what a gift that is.