I couldn't help but notice a trend lately, and also couldn't help but share my thoughts. I am seeing so many posts, memes, tweets, what have you about how we can't wait for 2021. We can't wait for 2020 to be over. In a way I get it, this year has been hard, has confronted us in ways we never experienced, but that thought also makes me sad. Someone once taught me that the way you finish one season is exactly how you will begin the next. If we finish this year exhausted and ready to throw in the towel, we will start next year exhausted and ready to throw in the towel. If we finish this year feeling defeated and like we learned nothing, we will start the next year with nothing in our hands. I want to finish 2020 looking back at all the good, and the things I learned, all the people I got closer to and the relationships that bloomed, and more than that I want to finish this year grateful. 2020 has been a hard year, but also a great year. Saying that doesn't disregard the real struggles we are all going through, especially now at the holidays, not being able to be with everyone we love. But even in that, we need some perspective. Hardship, struggle, friction and tension, they all come before growth. Physically, your bones hurt when you're getting taller, your jaw hurts when your teeth are coming in. In nature, the higher the altitude that coffee plants are grown in, the more intricate the taste profile because they had to strive to grow. We are the same. Pressure, tension, struggle, can make us grow so much, if we let it. I don't want to look back at 2020 with sadness, feeling like it was a wasted year, or failure. I want to look at it with gratitude, with observing eyes, and with what I learned, and that is what will carry me in to 2021.
