2021 year in review
LINGERING FOG, BIG EVENTS, AND LEADING THROUGH IT ALL.
I was looking back through some old notes and journal entries while working on my year-end review and found this, from January 9th, 2021:
It’s been cloudy for about two weeks. When it’s been cloudy and snowing, the perpetual gray sky has been bearable. But it stopped snowing awhile ago, and the sky has lingered in a perpetual state of darkness.
The forecast, each day, has predicted sun. But the sun never came. Instead, the sky has been blanketed by a thick layer of fog - as if it’s covering up the sunshine that really does exist somewhere beneath.
One benefit of this two-week long fog has been a layer of hoarfrost or rime ice (depending who you ask) coating the trees. The trees and bushes sparkle - their silhouettes outlined in an icy coating against the sky. It makes winter seem magical, at least for a few days.
The perpetual gray sky and perpetual layer of fog could perhaps be a good metaphor for the start of 2021.
We all came in optimistic, thinking that this year really would be better than the last. It certainly wouldn’t take much.
If only these words wouldn't have ended up ringing so true for the remainder of the year.
Many good things have happened in 2021.
A number of colleagues and clients have had banner years.
People have gathered, families from overseas have visited, and in wealthy nations, vaccines are available to anyone who wants them.
Many have worked tirelessly over the past year to treat patients, teach masked kiddos, and do the work of two people in cases where colleagues have departed or retired.
Some have kept up new hobbies that were developed in 2020, and held onto the things that matter most while shedding some of the others.
We have been resilient.
But the fog has also remained.
(Trigger warnings to follow: news, violence, and drug use)
We started the year with the January 6th attack on the capital, around which there are still many questions and unsolved pieces of the puzzle, a year later. We learned of (another) new variant, and we heard promises of unity from our new president. Lady Gaga, J-Lo, and Garth Brooks performed at inauguration, and Amanda Gorman gave a speech that would lead to her rocket-fueled fame in 2021. We talked about living in liminal times.
In February, the Polar Vortex hit many parts of the US, leading to record sustained lows in a number of places. Winter storms hit Texas, leaving many without power or water for days (and in some cases weeks). Our friendships and relationships continued to evolve, against the backdrop of our current context.
In March, we celebrated International Women's Day. Some residents of Jackson Mississippi spent weeks without power and/or water. The US grappled with several mass shootings, within days of each other.
In April, a number of you joined the virtual Spring Cleaning Challenge (thank you!). Japan approved dumping radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean over the course of the next 30 years. The J&J vaccine was temporarily paused due to concerns with blood clots. We decided we might be languishing and tried to make sense of what was happening around the world.
In May, there was an outbreak of violence in Isreal and Palestine, leading to hundreds of deaths and much destruction. We pondered whether we might be able to move from languishing to flourishing. We tried to figure out what, exactly, we might mean by “hybrid” work environments.
In June, we witnessed the tragic unfolding of the Surfside Condo collapse in Florida and the heartbreaking daily updates that, no, there hadn't been any additional survivors found. We navigated a Mercury Retrograde that felt extra retrograde-y. Where I live, there was a brief moment in time where the mask mandate was partially lifted. We experienced the solstice.
In July, parts of Europe reopened to visitors. Some of us debated whether we are in a fourth turning and considered whether a year+ of social distancing has broken our brains. Wildfires burned throughout western Canada. Heavy rains caused damaging (and deadly) floods in Germany and Belgium. Florida broke its annual manatee death record in six months, and hundreds of millions of dead sea creatures washed up on the shores of the pacific coast.
In August, the US withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban advanced, and the elected Afghan government fell. A suicide bombing killed 183 people including 13 members of the US military, and a US air strike led to the death of ten Afghan civilians, including seven children. Hurricane Ida struck New Orleans. Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones passed away.
In September, we continued to think about The Great Resignation and what to do about it. Independent organizations ran rescue missions in Afghanistan, and Fort McCoy became a home base for around 13,000 Afghan refugees. El Salvador started accepting Bitcoin as official currency.
In October, we found ourselves in Mercury Retrograde (again). We continued to grapple with division and polarization and how to not have so many meetings on our calendars. The WHO endorsed the first malaria vaccine. Some wondered if we are on the path to the fall of democracy. Elton John released The Lockdown Sessions.
In November, we moved from Languishing to Fall Regression. Face masks continued to litter the sides of the bike path and the branches of our neighborhood trees, and Aaron Rodgersmade lots of headlines before passing Brett Favre for all-career touchdowns a month later, on Christmas day.
In December, fentanyl overdoses became the leading cause of death for 18-45 year olds and overdose deaths in general continue to climb. The US announced a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in response to China's Human Rights Record. Many small businesses had record years, as more people came out to shop small over the holidays.
Looking back throughout 2021, it feels in many ways like that foggy feeling from January 9th stuck with us for much of the year. We waited for the sun to shine through, in the form of a return to normalcy or lifted restrictions or the pandemic being over, but collectively, that consistent sunshine never came.
We can only hope that 2022 will be the year that the sun busts through the fog and provides us with some blue skies ahead. In the meantime, may we make the most of the foggy uncertainty and find joy and connection wherever we can.
As we've talked about over the years, no matter what is happening around us, we have a choice about how we respond and how we lead. May we continue to lead in the moments in order to collectively take steps toward creating the type of world that we want to live in.
With that, wishing you a wonderful entry into the year ahead.
