(I thought I had published this one. Or maybe I forgot I wrote it [believe the second thing]. Although COVID-19 has completely reshaped what we thought 2020 was going to be, perhaps this is still worth sharing).

It is New Year’s Eve 2019. Steve and I are in one of our favorite places: a good friend’s condo near the beach. We did this last year, too, and I think it will be an annual tradition if possible; having made it through the holidays, we escape to breathe, lick our wounds just a little, and rest up before Tax Season carries us off.

Like most of humanity today, I’m reflecting a bit on the year just about to exit, the side door soon to click shut behind it just as 2020 waltzes in the front, full of promise and possibility (3/31/20 note: wow…but I know a bunch of others who felt this way. And maybe this is still true, somehow). I’m not one to make resolutions because I hate failing, and I am pretty bad at predicting the future; instead, I like to try and think of what I have learned and write it down, lest I forget (and I usually do forget anyhow, because that’s how I roll #middleage). Perhaps there is something here for you, too.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Like all of you, I am living in a state of suspended animation during the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Steve and I are still working, because the Governor of VA did not extend the tax filing date for residents of this fine state (unlike the Federal government), and so we still gotta file a bunch of folks’ tax returns by May 1. But all of my emotions are in a big knot of speechless horror covered with a thick, gooey glaze of numbness. Seeing videos of a nearly empty New York City (as residents shelter-in-place) is surreal. Watching the death count rise makes me ill. This weekend Steve and I will identify a bunch of charities to give money to, while feeling a sense of inadequacy in the face of the enormity of this crisis.

Thank God for some lovely days like this one – blue blue sky, warm temps – so I can walk or bike to work and feel more balanced.

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