Who would ever have thought that the last 12 months would be like they have? Not me, that is for sure!
2020 was an absolutely massive year for me, and my website, social media, artwork and meditation groups have suffered as a result.
I live in country New South Wales, Australia. We started out the year surrounded by thick smoke, falling ash and the constant threat of bushfires closing in on us. I had planned a full day workshop at a local winery in early Feb, fully catered with wine tastings, an amazing lunch, normally beautiful views and focussed meditation and creative practice. Did not happen. Fires were too close, too much smoke. It was too uncertain.
Other parts of the country were dealing with floods, locally we had a major hailstorm that caused damage to over 50,000 vehicles as well as a large amount of property damage. In other parts of the world there were the Hong Kong riots, Wuhan was closed down, and the suspension of cruise lines started.
We weren't even sure if my daughter's wedding was going to be able to go ahead. We were extremely lucky that the first settled a week or two before the big day in early March. If you have the chance, the National Arboretum in Canberra https://www.nationalarboretum.act.gov.au/ is an amazing site.
I can remember people starting to talk about Covid19 at the wedding, but it was still very distant. The next week there was the first announcement that international travellers needed to self isolate for two weeks upon entering, or returning to, Australia. Simple times indeed.
For me, the issues with Covid sparked a large life change. Like many, I was working from home, but it was getting harder for me. I had not been happy at work for a while and felt that I was being pushed out due to my ongoing health issues. I had a medical review booked for the end of June, and after some lengthy discussions with my treating practitioners, I decided to take medical retirement. It has been around 6 months now, and I am still adjusting to the lack of a work framework, the limited socialisation, and, of course, the reduced income. I may explore early medical retirement in a future blog post, but not right now.
So, we are now at the beginning of 2021. My plans for this year are studying Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy, focussing on my physical and mental wellbeing, doing some local travel and lots of painting. I also hope to get back to being able to run regular meditation groups and workshops relatively soon.
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