Hindsight 2020

The year 2020 changed everything for everyone. Pandemic, a dreaded word in the medical dictionary, became part of our lives. The year and what it unleashed is already redefining our future. Everyone has their personal stories; of tragedy and of learning and growing.

As they say, hindsight is always 20/20. This is my hindsight from 2020. I wish I’d known these then. I hope I can truly understand these in this altered life.

1. For a life lived fully, death is not the end but the cure.

2. Happiness can be a decision or a delusion depending upon whether you base it on gratitude or on desire.

3. Sorrows can be borne if they are made into a story. And shared.

4. You live by moving on to the next moment and making every next moment your present one.

5. We all have an inner sense of what is right; what most of us lack is the ability to know when it is not right for us.

6. “Who does this benefit?” is the best test of any action, and every thought.

7. How others see you is your personality, how others perceive you is your reputation. How you see yourself is your character, how you perceive yourself is your ego. Choose what matters most.

8. Think. Read. Write. Ask questions. Talk less, communicate more.

9. Be a student even as you teach; be a follower even as you lead. Learning is true growth and humility is true strength.

10. Empathy in thought speaks louder than sympathy in words. Kindness in action heals more than support in words. Feelings and action move the world, through the art of possibility.

Each of these lessons was delivered to me by deepest felt and impacted experiences during the pandemic. Each one was a small story, then became a chapter and then a whole book, still being written, for me. These too are my life lessons from now on.