Finding richness and savoring the year of 2020

Each year, I spend time in thought and prayer waiting for words to guide me into the next one. These words become the cornerstones on which I build the next 12 months. 

My two words going into 2020 were richness and savor. More often than not, I’ll remember my words and wonder if I heard them wrong during weeks or months when nothing my reality seems to reflect the words I’ve hung over my year like a banner. 

Savor and richness became particularly confusing when I bought a home, woke up to the U.S. international travel ban and saw nearly every flight pulled down overnight – rounding off my third year working for the world’s largest airline.

The Wall Street Journal was visiting our offices that day and wrote a headline that declared this moment “the week coronavirus devastated the airline industry.” We followed the World Heath Organization’s lead, and I wrote our company’s official Declaration of Pandemic hours shy of being a first-time single homeowner. When we realized the virus would stay, it was hard to believe this year would be my richest one yet.

Looking back, now that we find ourselves in a December, I know there are few seasons that have taught me how to "savor" more. Savoring a hug from my grandma, my job, friends who sent me fresh vegetables just to show they’re in my corner, memories from London right before lockdown, or thoughtful gifts that kept arriving on my doorstep my whole birthday weekend.

I’ve learned that “richness” has to do with living an examined life. At my birthday dinner, we talked about how richness means drinking the full cup: being present to our deepest of joy, and the truest grief making it that much richer. The year of 2020 illustrates beauty in paradox so well.

It can be easy to think that those who are the richest among us – whether rich in love, family, life, relationships, or fortune – are just the ones who get lucky. It’s foolish to say that privilege and luck don’t play a role. But I’m also learning that richest life and richest love are often not things we stumble into, but rather things we get to create. I’m finding richness in building bigger tables, instead of longer bridges. Finding richness in differences and in opposition. And remembering that tension is where music comes from.

I’m learning to savor grace, too. I’m seeing anything that draws me closer to grace as a gift, even when it’s messy or scary or opposite of our plans. I’m being emptied of myself to be filled with something better.

Every birthday, I am overwhelmed with how much I’ve gotten to see in my short life while knowing that the best days are still ahead. Of all the birthdays, 2020 reminds us not to take another year for granted.

This birthday also marks 10 years of walking with God. He is worth any cost. I’m relearning Him every day, finding Him better than I remember and still sweeter than I’ve yet to know.

Adapted from Instagram.