…at least for what I can remember. My late grandmother, who lived through two World Wars, a Spanish flu, a Great Depression, the Holocaust, and some other niceties, would not probably be that impressed with 2020. But for me –a Gen X with short memory and even shorter life experience– it has been something both unexpected and difficult to cope with at the same time. Its impact wave has affected, directly or indirectly, the lives of billions of people, mine included, and disrupted plans, changed schedules, shattered certainties, rewritten paths. One year ago, I had just launched a tiny zine (Frozen Wavelets) of speculative fiction and poetry, and I was weighing the pros and cons of still publishing a blog after six years (I guess this is a moment everybody reaches as a blogger soon or later). Fast forward 12 months, and the questions I have now are quite different.
I have even less time to devote to this task than in January 2020, but now I feel keeping my blog alive more important than ever, because life is more than just your daily work. Even if I didn’t –for the first time– write here about my blogversary last December, due to life constraints, I feel happy to have been able to celebrate it at all, silently or otherwise. Frozen Wavelets is, surprisingly, still here, after one dramatic first year of publishing life. All plans we had made have been scrapped by the pandemic, and just keeping it coming has been a struggle. I wouldn’t have managed to do it alone, and I have to thank many people for their support.
Enter 2021, the virus is still among us. We’re not out of woods yet, but if there’s anything good at the moment, is that the end is in sight, and it passes through (safe) vaccines and a collective effort of responsibility to put these harrowing months behind us. So, let’s cheer for a new year that is just starting. Enjoy your favourite fiction and, whenever possible, write about it: it will make someone else’s day a better one only for reading it. Behave responsibly. Wear a mask. And if you have no medical issues that prevent you to safely do it, get your jab. If not for you, for the others. Happy New Year 2021, everybody.
Happy New Year Steph! How’s lockdown in Scotland?
As bad as in the rest of the country. Hope you’re well.
An inspiring and positive post, thank you, Steph, with precepts I shall endeavour to maintain! All the best to you and your own endeavours for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for that, and all the best for you, too. 🙂
Happy New Year, Steph! The Universe threw humanity a curve ball in 2020 and some of us hit it out of the park while others (especially the U.S.) totally missed it. I have been thinking about the positive and negatives of 2020 in my life for the past few days and have surprised myself with more positives than expected. And I am virus-free. May we all move forward in 2021 responsibly and with compassion for our fellow human beings. Best wishes to you and yours for a “normal” 2021. 🙂
Indeed. The year has not started well, but I keep hoping it will get better. There’s scope for it, isn’t it?
Happy new year to you too! Here’s to better times ahead.
Thanks! Definitely— and all tentacles crossed 🙂
Happy New Year Steph! It’s true that 2020 presented us with challenges we were not very prepared to face, but it’s also true that having an outlet for our mental energies proved to be just as therapeutic as other more conventional means. And the hope at the end of this long tunnel will certainly brighten our lives in the next few months… 🙂
Thanks, and take care! It is going to take time 🙂
I agree. Recharging now my virtual batteries for another busy year. Take care! 🙂
I love this article Steph – how inspiring! And putting it into perspective by reminding us of a previous generation, who had endured so much more is very apt and a bit comforting, right now… ‘This, too, shall pass’! Congratulations on your blogoversary – 6 years is very respectable and I, for one, am very glad that you have decided to keep it going! Let’s all hope that 2021 is a BETTER year, even though right now it seems to be the dark before the dawn…