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A Grateful Heart

As 2021 peeps out from behind the dark clouds of 2020, what is my takeaway from the year gone by? Do I choose to mourn all the lost business opportunities and the world devoid of meaning and life for millions of people across the world, or do I look at my life with gratitude? I choose to be grateful and happy. What am I grateful for from the year 2020?

March 2020: The Blessings in my Life

At the start of the lockdown, my business collapsed and all my professional plans for the year crumbled to dust. However, my feelings of despair were quickly replaced by gratefulness as the news of the migrants struggling through heat, hunger, and hopelessness brought a new awareness of my privilege. During the most severe lockdown the world has ever seen, it was so easy to feel that life was lacking with all that had changed. But compared with the dire conditions of the migrants trying to return home, mine was easy. I then shifted to focusing on others in need. Suddenly there were so many people and organisations to help and I, along with many others, contributed cash and kind to groups that, even today, are struggling to cope. In the midst of the pandemic, trying to get money to a Nepali Sherpa was an adventure of its own.

While I do still yearn for pre-COVID life, going through the initial phase of the lockdown made me ever grateful for the roof over my head and food on the table.

April–May 2020: The Transition

Before the pandemic, I had big professional plans. With a leadership programme and several seminars lined up, I had many details to finalise and much travel to plan. When the pandemic struck, all of it went up in smoke. All of a sudden, I had no plans and plenty of time. Like many other businesses have done in the past few months, I am grateful that I could transition to a digital medium. Among other things, COVID accelerated the process of virtualising my programmes and enhanced my capabilities. For instance, I never thought blog writing was in my wheelhouse, so I am grateful to, and humbled by, all my readers who read something that I have authored every week. Additionally, my cooking show which started as a one-off event has quickly become a big part of my weekly activities. I am especially grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with celebrity chefs and hotel partners to make this bigger and better and each month.

July–August 2020: Technology

While technology has played a big role in my professional life during the pandemic, it has also been the silver lining of my personal life. With both my brothers and my son living abroad (in addition to dozens of other family members and friends), connecting has always been a logistical challenge. Between varying schedules and time zones, getting on a call used to involve much more work than it does now. During the pandemic, everyone’s schedules have become more flexible and people have been eager to connect. I have spoken to my son on the phone more in the last nine months than I have in the past nine years! It has also been such a blessing to get on group calls with my brothers and their families and feel like they’re right beside me. With friends across the world, I have had the opportunity to connect more easily and feel like the time and space that separate us are irrelevant. I am so grateful that technology has brought me closer to all these people, especially when I don’t know when I will see any of them next.

December 2020: Love and Relationships

Two weeks before Christmas this year, my husband, daughter, and I tested positive for COVID. It was a stressful time, especially because I was admitted into the hospital for a few days. Even as I lay in the hospital bed, exhausted by COVID, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of love through texts, voice messages, and calls from near and dear ones. I am grateful for all the kind words and prayers that got us through it all.Most of all, I am grateful to my two doctor friends who guided us through every step of the Covid journey. One of them was in Africa at the time, and yet found time to advise my family at every crucial juncture.

As Christmas day got closer, we were all starting to feel better, but knowing that we would still be in quarantine and unable to do anything to celebrate made us gloomy. We should have been thankful that Jesus would transcend an undecorated house and that we were recovering well, but we missed our twinkly lights and Christmas wreath.

Despite all the setbacks, Christmas day was more special than any before. Two of our neighbours sent us a lovely Christmas lunch and dinner. We were already lucky that we didn’t have to worry about food during COVID, but having people take the time to think about making our Christmas special by giving us food was an infinitely bigger blessing. The icing on the cake was when a college friend, along with her husband and daughter, drove all the way from Whitefield to come stand outside our balcony and wish us for Christmas. It was so nice to have people think of us on a day when most people focus on their own families and needs. I am so grateful for these people and touched by the love they showed us.

Throughout our COVID experience, we had so many people ask us what we needed, and we are so blessed that we could say we needed nothing. All our needs were met even in dire circumstances. But we were most touched by the people who took the time and effort to reach out for things beyond what we needed. It may seem small from the outside, but on Christmas day especially, it made a world of difference to us. This year, I am grateful to have received love and care.

2021: Giving

As we move into 2021, I am dedicating the new year to giving. Having received plentifully, I want to make sure that I am a source of love and care. How can we reach out to those who are precious to us and make their lives more special? How can we best help people with needs or wants that they may not state outright? Most importantly, how can we help others meaningfully? Here’s to 2021, a year of grateful, giving hearts.