2020 Is About To Be History

Good morning, and wishing you a peaceful Sunday! Please press play and enjoy Samuel Barber's heavenly piece Agnus Dei as you read (he composed a choral piece for his Adagio for Strings using the prayer Agnus Dei).




We are officially 94.8% done with the hellish year that 2020 has proven to be. This will be a year for the history books, a pivotal year, and each and every one of us has the potential to direct our course and decide which direction we want to go.

Not everyone survived this year--our family had to lay a loved one to rest in May, and many of you have also lost loved ones this year. May all the souls who left us this year find rest in the peaceful and joyous presence of God. I understand we all have our own beliefs as to whence and to where our consciousness comes, so I'll leave a space here for your wishes regarding your loved ones ...............................................................

Many, most of us, are experiencing a form of grief. In one way or another, death has been at the forefront this year. Death of loved ones, death counts running on our tvs and through our phones, death of life as we knew it and our livelihood and hope for a better future.
Grief comes in waves but in many ways resembles the feeling of emptiness or a hole where once was great value.

Years like 2020 remind us of the cruel and impersonal barbs of fate...

...(but there's more, isn't there? Which is why we continue to live, to thrive even, to love, to plant and tend seeds we know we may never see harvested, knowing that after the winter of the soul and death of the world there is a Spring to come)
And what better symbol for everlasting life than Christmas, or for others the Solstice
And even the frigid, killing frost is wrought with beauty and purity:

I hope you continue to find ways to flourish, seeds to plant for others to harvest, and that, through our good efforts and labor the Tree of Life continues to flower and bear fruit for generations to come.


Have a good day, friends! Thank you for reading.

a reply to: zosimov

Love the avatar (check my history) love the music and love the art

S&F

Cody

a reply to: zosimov

If someone doesn't buy this place I think I may miss your threads most of all.

Thank you for this thread. I appreciate it and this year has been a doozy I will spend the rest of my days recounting.

“Hope springs eternal”

Here’s hoping you and yours (and all ATS’ friends and family), continue to persevere in your own personal lives and maybe again we will thrive and breathe easier.

I’d point out it’s not just losing people which has been excruciating and painful in ways I didn’t even know existed.....but whole ways of life, thought, living, expression, and love too. These things have been damaged and dampened and it’s a shame we won’t have everyone we once did to sort through and suss out life itself.

Maybe one day we will glean lessons, but the ones this year have been learned the hard way. No one gets out alive.

Enjoy the tail-end of this year for what it’s worth. Find meaning where you can and seek joy in all the ways that bring you happiness without harming yourself or others.

Thank you zos. Excellent and much needed OP

a reply to: cody599

Thank you for the comment with all the love! I love your avatar also--very cool you create art for ATS members' avatars.

Blend57 made this beautiful avatar for me (I didn't even ask--she saw the crow on my avatar and "blended" it with the background--books, added shiny scrolls and more crows and sent me this gift!)

Hope you have a great day!

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

You're one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever met. All the hate you get on here really cracks me up, knowing that.

Thanks, friend.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: zosimov

If someone doesn't buy this place

They haven't taken me up on my offer yet. I'm prepared to go as high as 50 bucks, cash.

Great thread, zos. Best wishes to you as well.

originally posted by: slatesteam
Thank you for this thread. I appreciate it and this year has been a doozy I will spend the rest of my days recounting.

“Hope springs eternal”

I’d point out it’s not just losing people which has been excruciating and painful in ways I didn’t even know existed.....but whole ways of life, thought, living, expression, and love too. These things have been damaged and dampened and it’s a shame we won’t have everyone we once did to sort through and suss out life itself.

Absolutely right. Very good points, and thanks for adding that nuance to the discussion.

Enjoy the tail-end of this year for what it’s worth. Find meaning where you can and seek joy in all the ways that bring you happiness without harming yourself or others.

Same to you and yours. Thank you!!

originally posted by: ColeYounger

Best wishes to you as well.

Thank you!

Beautiful post! It has been the worst of years indeed. Best wishes to you and yours. And I don’t see it happening, but hopefully next year will be better. Also, it’s sad to me what ats has become. I used to come here regularly, to hear new and interesting ideas, to enjoy debates with substance and hidden truths, to explore the possibilities of reality and fiction. Now it’s largely become a site wide mud pit, with partisan attacks and little to no commonalities or honest discussion reaching across. We’ve lost something good here, as we’ve lost so much good over the last decade.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: zosimov

If someone doesn't buy this place I think I may miss your threads most of all.

I noticed the red banner is not up at the moment so maybe someone did?

Thank you - my mom died 10 days ago. It was five months from her first symptoms to when she died.


I had great hopes for 2020. I just started a new job. I though family conflict was about to be settled.

Was I wrong...….

Lost my job, thought that was the worst until I

lost my mother and brother.

When I'm ready and if ATS is still here, I'll write a thread about dying during this time.

a reply to: Daughter2

I'm so sorry for your loss.

a reply to: Daughter2

I hope it gets better for you Daughter.

a reply to: Daughter2

I'm so sorry to hear this sad news. Sounds like you've had more than your share of grief lately. I'd love to read your thread when you're ready.

Thanks for posting. If you ever need to talk, please feel free to pm me.

(hugs, if you are a hug person)

-zos

originally posted by: Daughter2
Thank you - my mom died 10 days ago. It was five months from her first symptoms to when she died.


I had great hopes for 2020. I just started a new job. I though family conflict was about to be settled.

Was I wrong...….

Lost my job, thought that was the worst until I

lost my mother and brother.

When I'm ready and if ATS is still here, I'll write a thread about dying during this time.

My most sincere condolences and heartfelt prayers be with you...

a reply to: zosimov
It's a great piece! And, yes, what a year, we all know it, and deal in our own way..lets focus on 2021 being better.

a reply to: Daughter2

Very sorry for your loss, never an easy thing at the best of times.

a reply to: zosimov

Not sooooooo fast there young lady !

2020 is contesting the transition process, into a new year.

It has brought-up a protest, in front of the Supreme-Council™ of the Annus-Transitionus.

Looks like 2020 wants to stick-around...

You know what they say about bad news...




( Sorry : just joking around. Thank-you for a very kind, positive, and generous thread. )

a reply to: zosimov

Great post!

I often wish my parents were alive so I could talk to them once again, but alas they lived a long life and were old and frail. Both of them passed on several years ago. Not once during the last year they called 2020 did I wish they were still here. Odd, that. I would have never wished for them to endure what has happened to the elderly in the past 12 months...if they even could have.

If 2020 was an animate being I would take it out behind the woodshed and do unspeakable things to it!

Peace and wisdom.