Half a decade almost gone but not forgotten

To say that the first half of this decade has been rough would be one of the biggest understatements in the history of mankind.

As people look back at their New Year resolutions over four years ago, it is not hard to see and feel the optimism that a new decade was promising. What it delivered was nothing less than devastation, not only in a small country or in a portion of the United States, but globally the cheers in the early moments of the new year slowly gave way to silence and shock.

Who knew that hundreds of thousands of people would not live to watch the ball drop in the years that followed. For those who are alive and remain, the altering of life has been staggering. What hits hardest is the fact that the changes have not come back gradually, but quickly and society is having to adapt quickly.

Something that humanity is not always good at.

We were first reduced to no human contact, a people who had to mask their emotions, tough it out and wait for the storm to pass over. Along with that early 2020 pandemic, there has been unrest due to a country split in half by politics. The Civil War lasted four years. There have been uncontrollable riots, more deaths, and a political circus that everyone hoped would be over in early November is still continuing with no end in sight.

It seems as if everyone, including nature is just sick and tired of being sick and tired. It has spawned spurts of disaster of epic proportion. From wildfires to super typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, extreme heat, summer snowfalls and killer wasps, the earth is under siege.

According to Andrea Thompson who writes for the Scientific American, “This is only the second time that the official alphabetical list of hurricane names has been used up, meaning forecasters have had to move to the supplementary list of Greek letter names.”

Two weeks from now friends and families are going to gather, and America is going to celebrate Thanksgiving. Traditionally a time to reflect on the harvest of the year and to give thanks for the many blessings. Even that concept has been challenged of late.

Blessings? People have been so focused on the fussing and the fighting and the sickness and the natural disasters that even the word, “blessing” has not graced the family table of late. If the first half of the ROARING ‘20s has taught us anything, it has trained us to focus on the bad and to give up on the concept of a light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a cruel taskmaster that has caused many to lose focus, to lose heart and to lose hope.

Perhaps we need this holiday more than anyone can imagine. Perhaps, for just one day, people need to find strength in family and friends. Conversation should be focused on good memories and the blessing of the moment. We need genuine hope that things have headed toward the halfway tipping point of the ‘20s and come “ball drop” time – ushering in the second half of a very trying decade, people will not be afraid to be positive. To harbor hope. To say in their hearts, “This is different. The change has come. The night has given way to the dawn.”

Don’t your mouths get tired of having to justify, clarify, defend, criticize, find fault and spew negativity?

Why wait until New Year’s Eve to make a resolution? Shoot… in the next five weeks you may explode with angst and hopelessness. The Proverb says that hope deferred will make the heart sick. Don’t let hope wait. Grab a hold of it RIGHT NOW. Declare something good. Declare something positive. Claim your blessings.

As you are about to carve that bird and devour that pumpkin pie, make a pact.

Don’t invite politics or pandemics or negativity to your dinner table. For just one day. For one day, fight back and take back your focus. Take back your hope. Take back the love. And take back the word “blessing.”

As you go around your dinner table this year and tell someone what you are thankful for, realize that very real fact that even in the midst of a horrid half-decade, there have been good things. Perhaps great things. Things that you couldn’t focus upon until you were given a day purposed for gratefulness.

And then. Tell everyone what your hope is. What your prayer is. What you want your life to be when you leave Nov. 28 and wake up Nov. 29. There was a little song written by Irving Berlin and used in the 1954 movie, “White Christmas.” It says, “When I’m worried, And I can’t sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep, and I fall asleep, counting my blessings. When my bankroll, is gettin’ small,

I think of when I had none at all. And I fall asleep, counting my blessings.”

Happy season of Thanksgiving, and take back your right to be grateful.