2019 has come to an end, and with it, another decade. It's the inexorable flow of time... we can watch it pass us by, or we can hop on and enjoy the ride. And sometimes, hopefully often... take the steering wheel.
For me this year has flown faster than a spring swallow. It has brought an ocean of moments to cherish and moments to learn from, but it's only when they're all strung together, like pearls into a necklace, that we can appreciate the full richness of life.
Here are a few highlights from the year, starting with the most important:
Silliest moment:
Tough to choose, there were so many. We don't take ourselves too seriously around here! But one of my favorites has got to be when Aria called me into her room. "Mama, mama, can you come here?" The door to her room was slightly ajar, so I opened it and almost had a heart attack.
There, kneeling over a large storage bag was Aria, her face buried in the zippered top of the bag. Except, as I realized a fraction of a second later, it wasn't her. She'd arranged her hoodie, pants, and socks to make it look like her.
Proudest moment:
Watching Aria give a speech that she wrote herself at the Colombian Consulate on her opening night at ExpoArte.
Toughest moment:
Learning how to cope with extreme anxiety. Fortunately it was a singular isolated incident, caused by the prospect of a serious health issue for a loved one, which happily never materialized. But I had never felt anything like it. It was debilitating.
Most infuriating moment:
Too many to count this year! Practically every time I looked at news headlines or turned on the radio, there was some new horrible violation of human rights, the environment, democracy, and just about every institution of society. But I've also never seen so many people motivated to stand up for each other and for people in different countries and cultures, all over the world.
Most memorable moment:
This summer I took my mom and my daughter for a three-generation getaway to Hawai'i. I'll never forget snorkeling together, the three of us, holding hands. For my mother it was particularly special because it had been decades since she had gone snorkeling.
Most life-changing moment:
In all of my years of working on sustainability issues, I had never protested. 2018 was the year that broke that spell, but it wasn't until this year that I realized how critical and urgent our actions really are. It was really a series of micromoments that fused, over time, into one massive mother-of-moments.
I'd love to hear about
your 2019 moments, too.
~ Birgitte
