I’ve just shared a short note with the team at Substrakt, thanking them for all their hard work this year.
Doing this, perhaps obviously, forced me to reflect on another strange year.
In almost every way 2021 has felt more difficult than 2020 did. Work has been harder, life has felt smaller and more stressful, friends and colleagues seem to have suffered a never-ending wave of personal challenges and heartache.
But there have been, as there always are, pinpricks of light in all the gloom. My brother getting married; going to a Nick Cave gig after months and months of no live music; reading some genuinely incredible books after years of never quite being able to find the time; starting to learn French again; lots and lots of running — not in the mountains, but in lots weird and wonderful corners of south-east England; evenings spent catching up with old and new friends; seeing more films at the cinema than I ever expected to.
If the past two years have done nothing else, they have clarified what’s important, what is worth making time for, what is worth savouring. They have also reminded me, in any number of ways, how precious life is.
I am generally not good at noticing and being grateful for the good things in life. I have a restless way of approaching things, always moving to the next thing, never quite satisfied.
And that has perhaps been the biggest thing I have tried to shift, to try and stop and appreciate all the many positives, because they might not always be there.
So, as we all say goodbye to 2021, I am trying to hold onto that clarity, to make sure I spend more of my 2022 pouring my time and energy into the things and people that I love, to actually enjoy all the things that make life worth it.
And in amongst everything, that feels like a valuable lesson.
