12 months

"Time and Tide wait for no man"- Geoffrey Chaucer Looking at our lives in reverse is a bit like watching SportsCenter on monday morning during football season.....you only catch the highlights. We remember the vacations, the funny stories, the harder times, the tragedies, but very little in between. EXCEPT the last year. Unlike all the other years before, I remember almost every week during the last 12 months, or close. There was the lockdowns in march and april, cancelling all of my European trips I had planned during the day, but rejoicing in the 3 cases of white Burgundy we went through. There was nervousness about finances, then the PPP and the first stimulus. There was beautiful weather, that turned into the disastrous heat of summer. At first, we were told not to wear masks, then we were told we had to. We were told it was airborne, then told it wasn't, then told it was....every week the panicking people in charge changed their minds. At the home front, it was stable, but I listed my home in Portland, got an offer accepted, and prepared to leave the Pacific NW behind. Then the loan fell out twice, and I was done trying to sell it. Like a 7 year itch, I thought I had this irritation that I thought I wanted to get rid of, but in reality I just needed to work on my relationship with a city and an area that I love. I doubled down on my house, making it an even more attractive place to be. Every week, it seems, brought new news and new restrictions on everyday life, and we were glued to our phones and TV's for all of it. It was like 9/11, or some other transcendent moment in time, except that it lasted for 12 months. In between, life happened, as best it could. Lots of things got put on hold, but some things accelerated. Many people on the fence got married, or entered into relationships....strained by the idea of the world ending, and the idea that they might be alone while it happened. Lots of other people got divorced. Whatever happened, it was interesting to me to watch. Everybody needs somebody, and this year made a lot of people realize that. I don't know what the end of this story is, it hasn't ended. But one thing is for sure....we will all remember these last 12 months.