2020, what a year! shall we give thanks?

What a year it has been…

2020 has surely delivered more than we possibly could have expected and revealed more than we had ever previously experienced.

Shall we be grateful?

Some traditions consider leap years a sign of bad luck.

In Italy we even have an old saying that goes “anno bisesto, anno funesto”, which roughly translates into “leap year, gloomy year”.

In history, I’m aware of two major events happening during leap years, ancient Rome burning in 64 AD and the Titanic sinking in 1912.

Leap year 2020 has been indeed extremely challenging for many of us, with the world shutting down in front of a virus, and with governments imposing huge restrictions on our freedom.

We have experienced – and still are, a vortex of many emotions, from disbelief and fear to worrying and feeling unsafe.

We also became very familiar with the word “lockdown”, brought forward to our attention as a mean of protection, but which in reality means the confinement of prisoners to their cells for all or most of the day as a temporary security measure .

Nevertheless, I would like you to take few minutes to reflect on the hidden gems that you have had during this year.

It may take a while to find them but they are there!

For many, this year has brought transformation.

I saw many of you starting questioning their lives and their purpose.

Some left their jobs, move out to the countryside or went to live abroad.

Others discovered creativity and started new projects.

Many went back to studying and shaped new careers.

I pleasantly remember the weird silence reigning here in London, with no car engines noise and with no planes in the sky… so peaceful!

We had time to explore nature around us.

We had time to discover that little park around the corner we never really paid attention to before.

We stopped and listened to birds singing and watched stars in clearer skies.

We really appreciated family and friends, maybe as we never did before, trying to make up for the forced separation with inventive online appointments.

I know many of you organised Sunday lunches and Friday nights with family and friends on Zoom.

And diaries suddenly became full of human interaction cuddles rather than boring work-related meetings.

Let’s give thanks for all this and much more, and above all let’s meditate on what is really important to us.

Let’s try to make it the basis of our everyday life, pandemic or not, because now we know much more than what we knew last year 😉