Do you remember my annual Bucket List? It seems like I wrote the one for 2020 about 5 years ago. We had some big things planned for 2020: a road trip, a boat trip to Robben Island, holidaying in Namibia, live music concerts - pretty much all the things that Covid put an abrupt end to. It would be easy to think that 2020 won, except when I looked through the list again, I found things that, in weird and wonderful ways, we did manage to do.
We certainly did play more games inside. The kids can play Speed, Crazy 8, Scrabble, and 30 Seconds.
We did family devotionals. Admittedly, we were better at it during lockdown than out of it.
We made and used environmentally friendly wrapping paper (brown paper and string for the win).
We may not have sent our overseas family and friends much correspondence (I want to blame the Post Office, but that's not true - we just suck at writing letters), but we did speak to them way more often via WhatsApp and Zoom, and that was cool.
We didn't catch a fish, but we did braai one, and it was delicious!
I finished Bayley's photo book! (I did also print it in the wrong size, so it's a miniature book, but who's keeping score?)
We did some random acts of kindness, mostly in a #playitforward challenge where we gifted 5 people with random things, and the only catch was that they had to do the same. It was rewarding, especially to get it done in 2020.
We got some plants - and managed to keep them alive. I recently also got a planter box that I've planted some herbs in. Sam's the one with the green fingers, so I've left him in charge.
We did more exercise. As a family we try to walk around the neighbourhood once a week. Andel still cycles every day, and once upon a time this year, I was running every other day in preparation for my first 5km race. I complete it, but have since not resumed running.
We tried to make our world a better place by being available, helping others, recycling, sharing, and giving Hope.
While it's possible for God to do the impossible, and change everything in a moment, I'm not sure the earth and its people have learnt all we need to from the situation we are in. I think we're going to be dealing with lockdown and restrictions, and this "new normal" for a while still. So here is my one bucket list item for 2021: Be Kind.
Happy 2021 everyone! Our Hope goes with us into it.
