This winter, it seems as if everything is happening at once. Nothing is more apparent than the feeling of having been in a really long winter, with all the craziness of 2020. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve told me they couldn’t wait to say goodbye to 2020 and are looking forward to 2021, hoping it will be better. We’ve seen a spotlight shone on racial injustices and equality imbalances, and COVID has literally forced everyone to pivot and cease everything we may have taken for granted about our lives before. Depending on where you are in the world, your family may even be separated.
At the same time, consider this: Your immediate family household has been forced to spend more time together than ever. I know me and my kids have always been close, but with COVID and all the restrictions that have come into play, we basically shut ourselves off from the outside world. We do more now just with each other than we ever did. Despite all the craziness of 2020, we still need to see all the good things of the past year. Even in good times, when things in life are going well, we are naturally conditioned to look for the bad, awful things. We adopt a negative outlook, saying we’re not good enough, that things are just horrible, that the world is going to hell. All we see are the power plays, how others have more than we do, how we’re being taken advantage of, or our rights are being violated, or people are just not following the rules.
We can find a lot of bad things in our lives and in the world around us if we really try. I’ve heard from so many around me that there’s been nothing good about this past year. But we still need to remember the good things—and I can tell you that for me and my kids, a lot of good things happened in the past year.
For one, being an author, I decided to shut off the TV news completely, because all it did was build on my fear and panic and anxiety. In isolation, I no longer had the same demands on me and my time that I once had. Writing is a solo occupation, and you have to love that alone time, which I really do.
For my autistic son, things are different, but we took time every day to do some fun stuff as a family, from badminton to volleyball. My daughter took over conducting some Special Olympics activities for my son, creating a mini obstacle course outside. We talked, we laughed, and we played games when I wasn’t writing and working. We even had dinner together every night, something we had never done before, because dinner was had in passing, between running out the door for every activity or sport or whatever we were involved in. We had been too busy with our crazy outside demands.
For me, I cannot look back on 2020 without seeing good things. I feel like we got to step off that fast rollercoaster of go-go-go craziness and have time for us as a family. But then, I learned long ago in the business of being an author that I had to be able to pivot. In selling books, what worked two months ago doesn’t work today. The industry changes that fast, which is one of the reasons many authors have never been able to quit their day jobs.
COVID is no different. You have to look at what you can do and pivot with this challenging time. Look at what is working for you and your business and your job. Maybe this is the time for a career change, or maybe you can figure out a way to work from home, or you can start your search for that dream job, which you’ve always put off.
As we enter 2021, in many places in the country and in the world, not much has changed. But look at what’s making you happy. When your thoughts start taking you down that road where everything is bad, take a minute and look at what’s working—because now is the time to find the best in the situation, in your home, in your job, in your family, and in you
Newly Released
Book 1 in The Billy-Jo McCabe Mystery Series is now available everywhere!
“This is the launch of a new series, a mysterious, gritty crossover between the McCabes and the Friessens…A few surprising twists and turns, suspense and some unsolved mysteries that hint at more interesting things to come, make this book a promising start in the series.” ★★★★★ Honest_bookworm, Amazon Reviewer
Nothing As It Seems
When an at-risk girl disappears from an island wilderness camp, social worker Billy Jo must team up with a detective who’s her polar opposite to bring her safely home. But one missing girl is just the beginning…
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And The O’Connells Family Christmas
The O’Connells Family Christmas
As Christmas approaches, the O’Connell family’s loyalty is tested once again.
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