2020 Christmas Greetings from our home to yours

2020 is drawing to a close, and I think most of us will be glad to see the end of it. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives and routines in ... what's the word I'm looking for ... unprecedented ways, and we hope for good things in 2021 with a vaccine and eventually a return to some semblance of normal life again. I say "some semblance" because of course for so many of us there is no real return to normal: many have lost loved ones and been ill themselves. And for those who have not been personally touched by Covid-19 I think there is a general realization (though this should not have been news to us) that life is not something we can control and capture.

Perhaps Advent and Christmas are also good reminders of this truth, as we ponder God's faithfulness, his Emmanuel-God-With-Us presence, no matter what the circumstances of life bring.

When school shut down in March, our family had to adapt to new routines and rhythms. This was perhaps hardest for Jonathan, who suddenly lost all his favourite activities: school, camp, church, Circle of Friends, sports events with Dad, and the library. We found enjoyment in many, many, MANY family walks: on the K&P Trail, at Lake Ontario Park and Fort Henry and Lemoine Point.

Jonathan sprouted up in height, past me and then past Allison, lost about 15 pounds, and wore his sneaker soles smooth with all the walking. He did amazingly well all those months at home, but was glad when school started again. Now in mid-December the newly built Kingston Secondary School has just opened up, so he and everyone else at KCVI has moved over there. It will be an adjustment for him in the new space, but we know that if he has his familiar people around him, he will adapt.

 

After taking her first on-campus course in Linguistics last year, Allison moved back to remote study along with most other students. This fall she took three third-year Linguistics courses (attending around 9 hours of Zoom lectures most weeks) and has worked very hard. She'll continue this area of study in January; she really seems interested in this subject, perhaps because it combines her interest in language with a sense of structure and order.

Not going to PEI this year was perhaps the biggest disruption to our normal life. When we said goodbye to Dad in his hospital room in August 2019 we never thought we would not be seeing him for well over a year. But he is doing well at the Whisperwood Villa nursing home, staying healthy, and coping patiently with the restrictions Covid has brought. We are hopeful that sometime in 2021 we'll be able to make the trip there and see him and my brother Lincoln and other relatives again.

Richard's work has not changed too much this year besides the need for Covid safety protocols at the hospital. He is missing his volunteer and sports activities: no road races, church softball, or summer soccer. He's done a lot of running on his own, coped with a sciatic nerve flare-up this fall that lasted about a month, and provided regular support to a church friend who has some life challenges.

As an online instructor I have not experienced much day-to-day change in my work. I know our students are stressed and struggling, though, so I need to remind myself that marks and due dates are less important than students' well-being. One student told me in his year-end reflection that he found doing the work in our course "oddly comforting." In 2020, I take that as the highest compliment.

I haven't done a huge amount of creative writing this year (the fact that my writers' group isn't meeting is definitely a factor in that), but I did have three publications:

• My poem "These days" appeared in Dust Poetry in January. (It's interesting to look back at the very real global concerns that preoccupied us in those pre-pandemic days.)
  
• My poem "Leaving home for the last time" appeared in Juniper Poetry this fall.
• My article "Prison farms in a time of global crisis: thinking big, starting small" appeared in Kingstonist.
  

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Ten days from now we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We won't be having an in-person Christmas Eve service or any big family gatherings. But nothing stopped the coming of Jesus into this world as a baby, and nothing can prevent our celebrating that gift, even if it is in new, quieter, simpler ways than in the past. 

But when the fullness of time had come,
God sent forth his Son.
(Galatians 4:4a)

Whatever way you celebrate Christmas this year -- or even if you have different religious observances or none at all -- may you experience peace, contentment, and hope for the future.