What a Year - Already!

I was speaking to one of my colleagues and they asked me, “how is everything else besides work?” Now generally when people start speaking about the weather, it’s a sign that the conversation is dying out, but I did respond to her question with reference to the weather, and it wasn’t because I was grasping for straws either. It was because I genuinely had the weather on my mind that morning since I found myself looking outside through the window, at the lightly grey sky as I sat down to begin my work day.

As I did so, I found it interesting that in the summer of February, we find ourselves with a grey sky – and then I was just thinking to myself about just how much the weather has fluctuated during January and February alone. I’m accustomed to an extremely hot January, but this year I experienced some weeks of notable cold fronts and unexpected rains too, what with Eloise whose impact may not have been as devastating in Johannesburg, but had some effect nonetheless. So I know that between January and February, where I would have usually just worn my shorts, dresses and skirts; I actually found myself frequenting my gown as I worked from home, and being careful to wear a safe outfit -whenever I did leave the house - in order to be ready for any sudden changes in the weather.

Anyway, I responded to my colleague by telling her that the way the weather has changed a million times this year; it feels like we have gone through all the seasons already and the year may very well end. This got me pondering something else too; that the year might have just began – but for some people, perhaps so much has already happened that they feel ready to close the chapter that is 2021. As I was watching the news today and they announced that political analyst Karima Brown passed away due to covid; I just thought of the number of deaths that have been announced on the news this year alone, especially due to covid, and I added to those the deaths that I’ve heard of around me as well. I was thinking about how just one loss is enough to shatter those that are left behind, when I considered that truly, for some people they may have gone through something so heavy already in these early days of 2021 that they’re ready to close off the year.

The same way the 2021 weather has been fluctuating and it feels like we’ve gone through a year’s worth of seasons; I think sometimes we do feel like so much has happened in our lives yet we turn around and realise that the win, the loss, the joy, the heartbreak, the miracle, the disappointment – whatever the case – happened in a short space of time, but because it turned your life around abruptly; and maybe the process of going through that thing was heavy, significant or otherwise taxing, it feels like it’s been a whole year when it’s only been January and February.

I think that covid has to some great extent forced everyone to go through what feels like a year in an accelerated space of time; because covid demands and takes at a pace we were never accustomed to. Covid has ended lives, relationships, jobs, businesses, plans et cetera; so I believe that most people have had to go through some form of abrupt interference. It is for this reason that I just feel perhaps the comfort and strength that we can hold on to – is that we are going through all of these accelerated changes together, that in some way or the other if someone does feel like 2021 has been too long already; they can soldier right on because there is a whole army of people who feel the same way that are soldiering on too.

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Having said all of the above; I think the main objective of this blog was just to recognise that a lot can happen in a short space of time, and sometimes it can be so life altering that it feels like we've been processing it forever. And that's okay I believe.