2020 was a fantastic year

No, really. 2020 was the kind of teacher whose class nobody wanted to take, but years later, you'll remember what you learned. You'll still be talking about Mr. 2020's horrifying class ten years from now.

At least that's how I'll choose to remember it. But don't worry - this isn't a "positive vibes only" kind of post.

For us, it started out as a year full of opportunity. We went all-in on our homeschooling business. It limped along. It's still a thing, but our circumstances weren't optimal, you might say. We were still digging out from the crash of the business before that, underemployment, and then, you know, the international pandemic...

​Like I said - not optimal. 

But there at the tail end of it we had lots of opportunity to reflect on the why of it all - why it was so hard to work together. Why certain efforts seemed to go nowhere. Why other (surprising) things seemed to work so well. And for me, what keeps me pushing through what seemed like the impossible. 

You can't pay for that kind of experience. I'm grateful.

I don't do New Year's resolutions. I used to, but now I see every single day as an opportunity to improve, and more importantly, to practice virtues like patience and forgiveness. I'm terrible at it, but that's the point. Until I'm animated totally by grace, I resolve every day to do better.

I will say this, though - I'm going to focus on time management more in 2021. One of the biggest revelations of the last year was how grotesquely easy it is to let time (and therefore opportunity) slip by. "I'll get around to it" is a great way to lose days, months or even decades. No more. We always hear people say, "Live in the moment," but I wonder how many people actually do that. I wonder how many people put everything they have into every action of the day. Given how difficult that really is, I doubt it's many.

So, even if I have to call it a New Year's resolution, I'll be claiming my time this year, and, God-willing, every year going forward. For me, that's going to mean a lot more scheduling (sigh), and a lot more summoning energy when it feels like there's none left. And most of all, it means giving everything I have to those I love and those who are depending on me. 

I honestly don't know if I'd have felt the bone-deep necessity of this calling if 2020 had been the success we'd hoped for (and worked our butt off to achieve). So, that's why I can say, in all honesty, that 2020 was awesome.
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