The Year We Stayed Home

Nobody could have imagined that 2020 would be anything like the year that has passed.    

We knew that something was amiss at the start of the year.  The virus in China was big news but at the time it seemed to be akin to the news about the Australian bushfires, Indonesian floods, or Philippine volcanic eruption.  We prayed for the people directly affected and hoped that the disaster and its aftermath would end soon.  However COVID-19 proved to be much more serious than anyone could have imagined.

When we were first mandated to work from home in March, we thought it was going to be a temporary thing. It soon became clear that temporary was not just 'a couple of weeks' but more like 'several months,' and as the year comes to a close,  there is still no clear end in sight.

RD and MyGirl did online classes for most of the year.  RD hardly stepped out of the house and actually stayed indoors for over a month during the height of the lockdown.  MyGirl did her regular walks around the block and in the nearby areas.  MacGyver did not have the work from home option so he was out more than most of us.

The lockdown and empty shelves were not something we expected.   Thank goodness things moved slowly away from that extreme.  There was a gradual easing of the restrictions.  Shops re-opened and mass services resumed.  For the church, at the onset they allowed 10 people inside the church, then 50, then 130.  By the 3rd week of Advent, they had increased the number to 250.  

We were looking forward to hearing mass in person on Christmas Day.  Then boom!  There were 18 cases reported at the Northern Beaches.  They changed the restrictions to limit the number of visitors in a household to 10.  That meant that we could not have our usual Christmas Day gathering in one house.

Not only did we have split operations at the office, we needed to have split operations at home for our Christmas gatherings.  The adults were in one house and the kids were in another.

Christmas and New Year's are only a week apart, and yet in that short span of time, the restrictions changes.  The government further reduced the number of visitors for New Year's Eve to five.  That meant that even the split gathering we had done on Christmas Eve would not be allowed for New Year's.

Ever since we arrived here, we have always spent New Year's Eve with the extended family.  Back in Manila, New Year's Eve was always spent at Project 7.  This is the first year we will be spending a relatively quiet New Year's Eve on our own.

Despite all that has happened, we are still thankful for the year that has passed.  It seems surreal to think that for a time people were mandated to wear masks or forced to stay at home, that we stopped shaking hands and walking side-by-side with friends, that we could no longer share an umbrella with a stranger or offer to carry someone else's grocer.  I still find it strange not being able to help the elderly cross the street or offer assistance to someone else's child if they fell down.   

2020 has made us all stop and appreciate many things that we have taken for granted.  It has made us more aware of the people around us and reminded us that truly no man is an island.  

Hopefully 2021 will be a better year for everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!