The Year in Review...or, Is It Over Yet!?

Just considering the topic made me laugh to myself.  What I really wanted to do was to publish an article that consisted of a completely blank page with five little words in the center…

Wake me when it’s over.

But then I started thinking, if I just looked below the surface of all the fear and anxiety this past year has caused, not mention the chaos that has been this administration, there actually are some silver linings.  This forced introspection has reminded me of all the reasons I have to be grateful.  And what is most interesting to me is how so many of my revelations are so simple.

We all give lip service at years end for our health.  We say things like, “All I want is to be healthy, nothing else matters.”  Easy words to say when there isn’t a pandemic sweeping the globe and concentrating itself right here in our country.  I am a person who takes his general health very seriously.  I eat right, I exercise 6 days a week, I listen to my body and try to be kind to myself.  Still, Covid-19 has made us all hyper aware of our health.  I suggest this is not necessarily a bad thing.  The virus has forced us to slow down, be aware of how we feel, what we are doing and how we interact with those whom we come into contact. 

Simply being more aware is a win in my 2020 year-end review.  Being forced to take responsibility for my own actions and to consider how they might affect my family, friends, neighbors and colleagues makes us more aware of one another.  We have become (most of us) more thoughtful.  We consider our fellow man more than we did, even just one year ago.  I for one am happy to have the time to consider those outside my personal bubble.

Our relationships have become more important.  When Zoom calls are our only safe interaction, our time together seems more precious.  The images on the screen feel like a lifeline.  We recognize, like never before, the importance of the physical interaction that we have taken for granted with our loved ones.  That can never be a bad thing.

As your resident Design & Lifestyle guru I am also thrilled to see the renewed and intensifying interest we have in our homes and how we live.  All of the time we are spending at home has not only given us a greater desire to upgrade but, we have gained a new perspective of what is important in our homes.  It is no longer about the newest or most expensive.  It is not about impressing our friends and neighbors with our purchases.  It is about what makes us happy, what makes us the most comfortable and what brings the most meaning to our lives through the choices we make.

I have written repeatedly about finding meaning in the choices you make in your home.  I encourage everyone to keep asking the same question, “Does this selection/choice/item bring me joy?”  With our outside lives so limited at this point, there definitely seems to be a new imperative to live well but, on our own terms.

Our phones has been ringing off the hook at Foley & Stinnette Interior Design.  Everyone wants work done…today!  We are fielding requests for everything from new paint, to new furniture, to new kitchens, bathrooms, media rooms, home offices, the list goes on and on.  This new design perspective has given way to an urgency to transform our surroundings.  This also, cannot be a bad thing.

It seems that the pandemic has opened our eyes to what is important.  The people we love and the places we inhabit have truly become the center of our universe.  When considering the shift we have each had in the way we view our personal world and the world around us, it has been my experience that the vast majority of people, though scared and weary, have a new found respect for all we have and all we have been given.

Though this new found insight is, in my opinion a wonderful change, it is no way meant to forget or minimize the losses that so many families have suffered by losing loved ones this past year to the pandemic.  Trying to find the silver lining cannot ease the pain of someone being taken in such a striking and awful way. What might be possible is to make a true resolve to live each day to its fullest. To realize that the trials and losses of this past year do not have to break us but, they can make us more resilient than we ever thought possible.

Good riddance 2020, the new year cannot come fast enough but, I am still grateful to be able to find bright spots among all the darkness.  A new year, a new administration, new found hope, a new promise.  All of these things stand in brilliant contrast to the year that has been. Looking toward the future has never felt so good.  Bring on 2021!

Live Well,

Dann

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www.FoleyStinnette.com