How on earth is it December already?
I don’t know about you, but this has been the longestmostchallengingpainful year I can remember and yet, here we are, in December already. The year is almost over and a New Year is on the horizon. A New Year that will bring a new administration. A new vaccine and hopefully, at some point, a new beginning. We will turn the corner on the past 9-10-11-12 months. Phew!
So enough about that.
My neighbor John gave me a puzzle the other day. I opened the box, fished out all the end pieces and began to put them together. It took a while, but I got them hooked together making a big rectangle on the table. And then I stopped. Looked at the box and felt just the tiniest bit of discouragement. (That’s a lie. I was overwhelmed with discouragement.) There were soooo many pieces left and I had no idea where to begin.
I took a trip to Michaels the other day to buy a couple of frames for some old family photos. The aisles were decked with holiday supplies. Ornaments. Craft materials. Faux holly, pine bows and wreaths. Frosty the Snowman blared from the overhead speakers. Outside the sun was shining. It was 68 degrees.
I ordered the family Christmas cards. It’s a holiday tradition we do every year. I love sending them and I look forward to receiving them from others. Each year we take a family photo. We send it out to say, Hey there… We miss you… Merry Christmas… Happy New Year… Hope you’re well. But this year we’ve never all been in one place.
I met with some of my students for the last time on Zoom last night. It has been a heck of semester. I thanked them for hanging in there. Showing up in their little “squares” every week. Forging ahead on assignments. It hasn’t been easy for any of them.
The topic of the discussion was social norms. Social norms are accepted standards of behavior in a social group. (i.e., how we - as members of society - are expected to feel, behave and think.) “What are some of our social norms?” I asked my students.
In the past, I give them examples like speaking quietly in a library. No shoes, no shirt, no service or treat others as you would like to be treated.
“Wearing a mask,” they said. “Stay home,” they said. “Don’t shake hands!” they typed in the chat box. My how things have changed.
They have come of age in the past four years, when we’ve witnessed the shattering of more social norms that I could have ever imagined. I wondered if they’d noticed. They had.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the opportunity in this moment to reshape the way we interact with one another. To change up how we think about what matters. To decide how we want to be with one another. To connect our head and hearts. To act with congruence.
In the midst of the turmoil, we have the chance to reorganize the pieces of this wild and crazy life and create a picture we can all feel good about. We can go from individual pieces to one, big, glorious, multi-colored, multi dimensional puzzle of interlocking ideas, people, and practices. We can create new social norms. We can practice kindness. We can hold compassion, hope and love. We can create a place where everyone belongs.
Out of the chaos of this past year, we can shape a better tomorrow.
