NEW YEAR'S EVE... 2020

 Well this year certainly didn't pan out the way we all expected...

We had so many plans for 2020 and saw very few of them come to fruition.. This was the year that Steve was to retire... well he still did, but six months after the date he planned.

We lost my dear Dad in March right around the time that Covid hit.  To say it was a huge shock was an understatement.  He had been doing so well, that I had even started planning a 90th Birthday celebration for him for 2021...

On the day of his passing, some Covid restrictions came into place....  these restrictions were soon to escalate with us having to even change his funeral arrangements at the last minute which was really quite devastating to us all...

In hindsight now, we are so thankful that we got to all be present to say goodbye and all family members could attend his funeral, because a week later, that couldn't have happened.  

We were then put into a lock down situation for almost two months, were we could only travel within a few kilometres of our residence unless we were accessing essential services... who would ever have thought something like this would happen in our life time...

Not only were the borders to our country closed, but each State closed their borders to the other states of Australia.  Never had this happened in our nation before..

These were crazy days... Schools were cancelled, children began to learn from home...  

Had anyone told us at this time last year that these would be some of the challenges this year, it would have been hard to beleive that it would be possible...

It's been a crazy year.. 

We had booked two overseas holidays, one to Canada and Alaska to celebrate our retirement in May... That didn't eventuate... it has been put on hold until 2021, although I am still not holding my breath...

The second trip was later in the year when we would travel to Israel and Jordan before heading over to Denmark to visit Pete and Maria for the birth of their second child...

That hasn't happened either and we now wonder whether we will ever get to see our precious Elliot as a baby in real life...

And yet out of all the chaos and confusion, good things happened,  families spent more time together,  people starting working from home... some of these changes have been really positive and hopefully will continue even after restrictions from Covid are lifted...

Still I am pleased to see the end of 2020...

Do I have expectations for 2021... There has been no planning for this new year...  Life as we knew it has gone,  there is no planning, I have learnt that I need to live a life of gratitude...

To take life one day at a time and be thankful for all the blessings in my life...

The only changes I can make are the little changes... working on myself... strengthening the relationships with the folk I love and are important to me... 

Working on my health goals, working on my relationships with not only family members but especially on my relationship with God.  One of the things I have really learnt this year, is that nothing in life is guaranteed.  None of our possessions matter at all.  They can all disappear very quickly and in the great scheme of things they amount to nothing, if you were to get sick and loose your life....

It's been a sobering New Year's Eve.... We didn't celebrate it with others this year.

We celebrated it together in a much more refective way that previously.  We celebrated by being grateful and thankful for all good things in our lives and decided that this is the way we need to continue for this new coming year...

So in 2021 we are looking to live life with a grateful heart.

We did do up a nibbles platter to share to see the new year in though...

Why Gratitude as my focus for this coming year??? Why is it important. 

What is Gratitude.  Well according to the Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence, Gratitude is "a state of mind that arises when you affirm a good thing in your life that comes from outside yourself".

I've realized that the best thing that comes with gratitude is joy. Once I started to appreciate what I have, I've felt more grounded and present...  I am no longer anxious about what might happen in the future, and honestly living in the moment feels so darn good. If this is the one thing I have learnt this year, I am thankful.  It has been such a huge year.

Researh has found that those who practice gratitude consistently are more present, happier, and more optimistic.  It isn’t just about making a gratitude list on your bullet journal before sleep. Gratitude is an Attitude. And practicing gratitude is a shift in mindset – to stop taking what we have for granted, and to cherish them as a blessing.

 When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
– Marcus Aurelius

The best way to show my gratitude is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.
– Mother Teresa

First of all, gratitude itself is the act of noticing and appreciating all the good things in your life. So from there, a gratitude practice is training yourself to notice and appreciate the good things, then expressing gratitude for them.

It sounds simple, and in theory, it is simple. But training yourself to focus on what you’re grateful for, instead of the negative things going on around you, takes practice and commitment.

Having a grateful mindset changes the way we see the world around us and how we think. Gratitude shifts your perspective so you begin to notice and appreciate all the good things around you. And you start to think more positively as a result.

The more you focus on gratitude and the good things in your life, the more good things you notice to be grateful for.

Negativity is very draining, and it’s a state of mind that can really suck you in. Once you’re in a negative mindset, the negativity feeds off itself, until your whole focus is on the negative. And this only makes you feel more miserable as a result.

But focusing on gratitude helps you actively change your mindset, thought patterns and perspective. Focusing on what you’re grateful for trains your mind to look for the positive, and pulls you out of a cycle of negativity.

Beyond this, studies have shown that practicing gratitude has many other benefits as well. For example more happiness, better relationships, more resilience, better sleep, improved health, higher self-esteem, etc. It’s really amazing how being mindful throughout your day to focus on gratitude can have such a huge impact on your life.

 I have seen this in my own life this past year as I have endeavored to practice gratitude  already.