The years 2020 to 2021 were hard years. They were the years of COVID and were difficult for everyone worldwide. The world as we knew it completely and totally changed. For the worse and worst.
Then in late February 2021, my dad died, after not being able to see him since late 2019, thanks to COVID. (Since my husband and I lived across the country and for other reasons.)
In August 2021, we moved across the country, back home, to live in my dad's house in Colorado (where I lived for about 9 years in the past).
We are still unpacking. (We have too much stuff and need to get rid of a lot. And got more unpacking done over the weekend.)
I was out of town (state) for two weeks in December to help a family member after surgery.
When I got home, I was tired. Compassion fatigue wiped me out. And I tried to get caught up with my writing.
Also, in late November and throughout December, I have been dealing with health issues. And still am.
I began to turn to looking at plans for the new year and for the year 2022.
But looking back at 2021 seemed daunting, so I avoided that.
At any rate, I started to get a good feel for what I hoped to accomplish in 2022... When life changed again. See the next line.
Then, December 30, 2021, there was the Marshall Fire in Superior and Boulder, Colorado (close to home). In about 8 hours, 1,000 homes and businesses were lost to the most damaging fire in Colorado history.
My husband and I were able to see the smoke from our place. We have pictures. The smoke also reached our home and was pretty bad and smelled like a massive wood fire.
We watched the news as areas close to us got the preevacuation orders, and we waited because we knew after them would be us.
We lived in costal Virginia off and on for seven years and were used to being prepared for evacuation of a hurricane. Well, we haven't gotten out of that mindset. We still do not keep anything valuable of our household possessions below a foot from the ground. Anything under that, we acknowledge could be lost in a flood (in flooding). We have a go bag. We know what, and whom, to grab if we have thirty minutes to evacuate. So we are always prepared.
After all, we evacuated for one hurricane and were prepared to evacuate for four others. So we went through six hurricanes. The first one, we were prepared to lose everything. It was pretty bad. But, we ended up losing very minimal because we were prepared. (After scrambling like crazy for two days and learning how to become prepared on the fly.)
With a hurricane, you have days to get ready.
But not everyone has had this experience. Tornados, fire, blizzards, and flooding can happen pretty fast.
The Marshall fire happened so fast, and was so devastating, thanks to the horrendous drought conditions and hurricane strength winds, and because no one had the luxury of preparation.
How on earth do you live life normally again after your neighbors have suffered, and are suffering, so much?
We have some survivors' guilt. We feel bad that we are okay when they are going through their earthly version of hell.
We want to help. But, how?
Prior to December 3o, Coloradoans were all excited for 2022. It would, surely, be a better year.
Well...
So what does this mean for 2022?
How do we hope for a better year through the trials of 2020 to 2021?
How do we recover from 2020 to 2021? Can we?
How can we make 2022 a better year?
Is it possible to recover from these years and all these challenges?
What does recovery look like?
How can we make each day count when we are hurting so much?
How can we make this year count, every day of it, when we are so tired and beat-up?
Can we recover? What do we have to do to recover?
Is 2022 a recovery year?
Journal your thoughts.
Share your thoughts and attach a comment at the end of this blog post.
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