Can you believe it’s New Year’s Eve? Regardless of your individual experience, I think we can all agree this year has been… a lot. No one expected this outcome as we hopefully popped champagne and watched the ball drop in 2019, and yet somehow we’ve managed to survive one of the strangest, most trying and difficult years many of us have ever lived through. This is an accomplishment and deserves a moment for us to pause and look back on all that has transpired—the good, the bad, and the ugly—and defined 2020 as a year we will never forget.
There are so many ways to reflect on the year, and while I invite you to pursue a path that is most helpful for you, I am choosing to anchor my reflections to a specific symbol: An orchid. This might sound a bit unorthodox, but I promise it’s for good reason: Bear with me.
Not only are orchids beautiful, but they hold a plurality of larger meanings. Indeed, as one of the most highly coveted ornamental plants, the delicate, exotic, and graceful orchid is commonly said to represent love, beauty, and strength. In some contexts, orchids are even associated with fertility and abundance, and they are thought to have notable enduring qualities that characterize them as particularly resilient and able to outlive more traditional flowers such as lilies and roses. As if this weren’t compelling enough, according to Feng Shui orchids are also thought to have the unique ability to bring about luck and good fortune. With these connotations in mind, I can think of no better connection for how we want to ring in the new year. Love, strength, resilience, good fortune: These are the things I most hope for in 2021.
As we take time to rest, reflect, and intentionally look ahead to the new year, it’s important to pause and express gratitude for the beautiful gifts we have experienced throughout the past twelve months. Yes, 2020 has been a year of great pain and disruption, but there have also been moments of tremendous growth and resilience. From the deep conversations to the strong human connections to the infinite ways we have challenged ourselves to think bigger and dream more boldly, this year has offered a plethora of learning opportunities and moments for us to forge ourselves in the fire so we can ultimately emerge from the flames stronger than ever.
Each December Google release its “Year in Search” videos that compile a mash-up of the top Google searches, new stories, and cultural phenomenon that have defined the year. Last December I watched “Year in Search 2019” and was struck by its messaging around the importance of everyday heroes. As I reflected in my post, “When the Clock Strikes ‘Midnight [Blue],’” being a hero doesn’t require a cape and a super-suit; rather, extraordinary people are made in the seemingly ordinary actions that transpire daily. While I had very different aspirations for what I had hoped 2020—the supposed “year of vision”—would look like when I originally wrote this post on January 2nd, perhaps this same sentiment around everyday heroism has never resonated more strongly. As I reflected months ago, “In a world filled with conflict, hardship, and unpredictability, we all have the power to exude kindness, ‘boss up,’ and empower others each and every day.” True then and even truer now, these words carry a new weight and more profound sense of urgency as we bring 2020 to a close.
Google’s “Year in 2020 Search” builds upon the foundation of last year’s video by honing in on our human tendency to seek answers and find deeper meaning, particularly amidst times of great challenge and uncertainty. Indeed, the video explains, “The most human trait is to want to know why, and in a year that tested everyone around the world ‘why’ was searched more than ever… And while we didn’t find all the answers, we kept asking.”
I absolutely love this. There’s something simple and yet so profound in this framework. We humans are always striving, always chasing some invisible dream, trying to put our finger on that which lies just outside our grasp, starving to find meaning in a world that, at times, can feel devoid of hope.
But, amidst it all, even on our darkest days—even during our darkest years—we must persist.
Progress is not linear, it’s circuitous. Sometimes getting stronger involves standing still. Particularly in a year where disruption and ambiguity have reigned, we need to celebrate tiny victories and use what we’ve learned to fuel continual growth, no matter what that looks like. We need to dig into our curiosities and leverage that which challenges us to create space for good things to happen.
In short, we must continue asking questions. And we must boldly promise ourselves that what we discover will not scare or deter us.
Last New Year’s Eve I hoped we would “embrace 2020 to its fullest and challenge ourselves to whole-heartedly go after that which we most desire.” I ended my post with a hopeful, Cinderella-inspired anthem: “Let’s live like there’s no midnight.” This year, I’d like to take that a step further.
Yes, let’s commit to chasing even our biggest dreams.
Yes, let’s embrace 2021 to the fullest.
Yes, let’s live as if there are no limits to what we can accomplish.
But, as we do so, let’s consciously remember the pain, sacrifice, and heartache we experienced in 2020 and the valuable life lessons we have learned along the way.
Let’s promise ourselves we won’t simply start over or expect some magical refresh to transpire as the clock strikes midnight.
For doing so would render the weight of this year meaningless. If we do not learn from our experiences, then we cannot move forward, and I refuse to enter 2021 without declaring a conscious commitment to make this new year better than the last. We may always be searching and never fully reach our end destination, but we can collectively move forward, progress, and implement the difficult lessons we have learned to envision a more beautiful path forward.
So cheers to 2020. And cheers to the greatness, heroism, and profound beauty that awaits us in 2021: It is ours to fully step into. In this new year may we choose to live like an orchid and exude love, beauty, strength, and resilience, regardless of what awaits us.
We may not necessarily find the answers we are looking for, but I hope that we never stop asking the questions.
Comments are closed.