Getting Back Up
There were so many things that sucked about 2020.
It was the year of covid, the year of economic travesty, the year of racial reckoning, the year we are excited to bid riddance to.
Grey and I lived many lessons this year. Since he was one I have been instilling in him that when you fall down, you get back up. He applied this while chasing Dublin down wooded paths and we applied it together to the entirety of 2020.
/ When 2020 shut down spring soccer and basketball, we bought hiking boots and walked our way across more than 20 local paths...
/ When 2020 robbed Grey of what would have been a huge birthday party, we hired Mister Vic and hosted a Zoom concert attended by friends and family here, there, Tennessee, California and everywhere...
/ When 2020 distanced Grey from his grandparents for
almost the entire spring, we took to daily
FaceTime sessions that turned Camp Grandpa into Story Time with Grandma and Virtual Camp Grandpa with Grandpa...
/ When 2020 caused Camp Sewataro to abandon its Sprouts program, we
bought camping equipment and slept in a tent in the backyard...
/ When 2020 cancelled trips to The Bahamas, Medellin, Stowe and Jackson, Tenn., we diverted to Falmouth, Mass. and Windsor, Vermont...
/ When 2020 kept us home more than we wanted, we built a big boy bunk bed, a huge sandbox and a front yard flower bed...
/ When 2020 witnessed Arsenal really stinking, we dug our heels in and bought the new kit...
/ When 2020 led to Grey and his two first friends losing touch despite his and my repeated efforts, he filled the void with new and close friendships with Thomas, Colette, Eddie and Addie...
/ When 2020 eliminated the Boston Latin boys soccer season but for a small handful of socially distant training sessions, I helped out the Lincoln-Sudbury girls soccer team...
/ When 2020 crushed plans to finally reunite for a grand Miller family Thanksgiving, we instead jumped on a Zoom attended by all but one descendant of The Giant...
/ When 2020 reduced significantly the number of teams in my Massachusetts Futsal Association leagues and dropped the number of Pink Ladies Futsal Club teams down to just one, we organized up the a set of protocols to ensure as safe and successful a league as possible and rallied up a team of Pink lifers to keep the nation's eldest girls-only futsal club alive...
I lost money. I gained weight.
I deeply pondered the future.
I climbed a mountain.
I spent wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more time with Grey than I would have if not for the pandemic.
Time cannot be saved in a bottle, but the opportunity granted by this pandemic was not lost. Every minute I get to spend with people I love -- and especially the boy I love more than anything and everything I have every loved -- is perfect.
And nothing epitomized that perfection than the August week I spent with Grey and my father in Wayne, Maine.
Seven nights. No phone. No TV. My son. My dad. Loons. Dublin. And me.
The only thing as ideal as the weather was the opportunity to be in my favorite place (for the first time in 11 years) with the boy I am raising and the man who raised me. It was a formative weekend for oh so many reasons; a unique bonding experience to perhaps make Jack London or at least Mickey Miller envious.
Late one night heat persuaded dad and I to slip into the lake for a midnight swim. Beneath a stargazer's paradise I felt infinitely minimal; floating below the great wide open and a once-in-a-however meteor shower.
Looking skyward reminded me, as did the year 2020, how precious life really is. Every moment is indeed a blessing.
And although 2020 took much it also gave much.
When you fall down -- or when life knocks you down -- you get back up. I started teaching Grey this as early as he could understand, and all along I was also reminding myself.
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