2021 Calendar

Calendar It is that time of year, between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when I sit with both my old and a brand new calendar transcribing the regularly scheduled meetings and events from the old onto the new. It has been difficult during 2020, as so many meetings and events got cancelled or moved from in person to online, some with a change of day or time that the calendar didn’t always keep up. So full of line throughs, and cross outs and erasures and annotations, that often it was difficult to read when it was updated. While most things go in my google calendar, accessible by phone or computer, the kitchen calendar is still important, it’s where the family schedule goes. It’s where we record the important events of our lives. But how do I fill it out for 2021? Do I put down the “old” meetings days and times? Or the pandemic shift to the meetings? Do I fill it out in pencil? But then it’s faint against the paper and hard to read at a distance. Pen? But then it means more line throughs and cross outs as things get changed. The eraseable pens are gone now – given away just a month ago, before thoughts of filling out the new calendar swam through my head. Most years I agonize over which calendar to buy – wanting something pretty and cheerful with bright colors. Or something that reminds me of things I’ve done or things I want to do. This year, I bought one quickly, forgoing the agony of getting the “right one”, in place of just getting one, since this year, I won’t be checking out what different stores have, searching for the right one. Just happy that the store I was at had an “acceptable one”. So many terms have been used to describe 2020 – none complimentary. But 2021 will be different. There’s hope in the air now that vaccines have been created. One official was quoted as saying that everyone will be vaccinated by June. I find that doubtful. I look at the “priorities”, noting that even though I may be over 65, there are so many “groups” and “categories” of people who are more susceptible than I to succumbing to Covid 19, or worse dying from it, rather than having a mild case. For all I know, in this most strange of worlds, I may already have had it and been asymptomatic. But, I digress. I need to fill out the calendar. My only real choice to leave it blank, or to put down things as I know them to be now, then change it if needed. I opt for the later, recognizing that line throughs, cross outs, erasures and annotations are all part of the life I live now. Part of the Covid 19 Pandemic life that keeps evolving around me. Someday a “new normal” will emerge and I will be confident enough in it to not worry about the line throughs, cross outs, erasures and annotations. I will once more mark my calendar in ink without reflecting on the permanency of what I put down. Perhaps I’ll even choose a brightly colored ink that will reflect the “new normal” as a future of hope and promise and resilience. Yes, I shall do that, once the “new normal” arrives and there is confidence in its remaining.