As I have been doing for the past few years, I thank and say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one. 2020 was a crazily unexpected year to say the least. The Pandemic COVID-19 took over and the whole world was affected. I am among the group of people who lost her job. Yet in the middle of the chaos, I sought God more than ever. I prayed and prayed for the whole world, for my family and for all the people around the world.
There was a lot of uncertainty and to me the only thing certain is that no matter what, God is still in control. God is always in control. As the days passed by, I started to feel more at ease, and I started trusting God even more. I saw my beloved New York City, the city where I have been working most of my career life, deserted. Time Square did not look like Time Square. I prayed for New York City, the city I fell in love with when I started working there in 2010.
My three-year-old, soon to be four, also loves New York City. Once it was ok to go outside with the mask, my toddler Isaac and I made a few trips to the City. For us going to the city is just a 25-minute ride as we live across the Hudson river in Jersey. I like working in the city and living in Jersey. Isaac, my child did not go out of the house for about three months during the quarantine. When we finally started going out, I was surprised at how quickly he got used to the face mask, although he would ask me to remove it from time to time.
Isaac loves taking the public NJ Transit bus, the MTA bus and the subway (he loves trains and riding them), so I started doing trips, with safety precautions, to NYC. 2020 was the year, where Isaac was going to start going to pre-k school for the first time. Due to the Pandemic, school became virtual even for kids that young. I decided not to proceed with the school enrollment. Instead, I continue teaching him at home as I had already been doing.
Given the circumstances, not all was bad in 2020. I was able to spend more time with my child. Initially, when the pandemic started, the church service was being streamed online. Once we had the ok to go back to church, I was able to go on Sundays, every Sunday with my family, something I had not been able to do for a long time due to my work schedule.
2021 is a new Year and as I write this, we already are in the middle of February (Time flies). COVID-19 has not yet been fully eradicated but just the fact it is a new year brings also new hope.
I pray to God that this year will be a year of healing and a year where we close the gap on physical distance and are able to come close together again. And while we may not be able to come physically close just yet, we are able to come spiritually close. So, I pray that regardless of how distant we physically are, that we get spiritually closer than ever before. I hope that we love one another more than ever. I hope that we stop judging one another and embrace ourselves, because however different we may be, we have a lot more in common than we have uncommon. We may be of different race, ethnicity or background, but we are ONE specie. The human specie is only one specie. Let’s live and spread love. When there is love, there cannot be hatred. Let’s choose love, where there is love, there is compassion. Where there is love, there is forgiveness. Where there is love, there is God. Everything is possible with God.
2021 Welcome
God bless you, with love,
Querin