Can you recognize the good things that happened to you in a bad year? Being grateful for what you have can save you from despair.
The year 2020 has been bad in a number of ways. Our natural world was devastated by disasters like wildfires or hurricanes. Racial unrest led to protests, which spawned riots. A contentious political season saw election results questioned, and as a result our very democracy trembled.
Oh yes, and a pandemic swept across the globe, infecting tens of millions and killing well over a million people worldwide. Reactions to this ravaged our economy and changed life as we know it.
And yet, even in the worst circumstances, good things happen. They may be small, or fleeting, or personal. But these good things happen, and recognizing the good things that occur can give us hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.
So at the end of the year, what are some of the good things that happened to you? It is likely that you can point out dozens of ways that your life has been impacted for the worse. But can you think of ways it has gotten better?
What is the best thing that happened to you in 2020?
Related questions: Are there unexpected benefits to what we are going through? What are you grateful for? What are you optimistic about? Why should we be hopeful?
I’ll name three super things that happened in 2020, although I know there was even more good fortune than these.
For my 50th birthday, I decided to take a week off and go to an Airbnb in Owatonna, MN. A book-filled, relaxing time was made even better because Rebecca high-jacked my Facebook account to have folks wish me well and say what they thought was snazzy about me. Scores of people responded to the call, and my day was filled with posts bringing me great joy.
This past year, I timed the end of my gardening season to allow me enough weekend and early morning time to dismantle all my rotting cedar beds (which thankfully lasted me seven years) and install new metal kit ones in a different layout than before. While the square footage of garden space is a bit lower than prior years, the layout increases amount of space I can reach without disrupting the soil other veggies are trying to grow in. I also built the trellises for my beans and peas to also serve as tomato cages and stakes for my peppers, eggplants, and sunflowers. I finished the project the weekend before the first snow.
Rebecca and I did not catch the coronavirus.
I moved to a place where I am happier, and I’ve read a lot of good books.
We added a new puppy to our family.
I actually had a very good year professionally, with resolutions of several recurring and vexing issues in the area of emergency shelter.
I started working from home, eliminating a 100-mile round trip commute to Minneapolis. I have a lot more free time in my day now, and I am getting more sleep.