Little Bits of Joy
My recently received edition of Entertainment Weekly started with this glum opening editor’s note:
“Nobody with a lick of sense should wax nostalgic about 2020. Should some future soul discover this letter many decades hence, when humanity lives in climate-controlled domed cites and zips about on hoverboards, submit this artifact as evidence. Yes, things were as ghastly as you’ve read about on your history gizmo. Yes, we were besieged by a poisonous pandemic, poisoned politics—even weather we heedlessly brewed into poison. Yes, we huddled in our homes, and found no solace on our phones. We were gutted, fried, and sleepless, cursed to live in interesting times.”
While 2020 was certainly a difficult year, filled to the brim with extremes and challenges, the above letter struck me as incredibly bleak. When looking back on the year while building a family calendar with pictures from the past 12 months, I am struck with the moments of joy we did find.
We enjoyed balloons, turtles, frogs, kittens, riding bikes, swimming in the backyard, and lots of snacks…
All simple pleasures in an extremely complicated year.
And, in talking to many of our clients, many are grateful for the moments of joy in the middle of an incredibly difficult year. Despite all of the disappointments and anxious moments in 2020, joyous moments, both big and small still unfolded. We’ve celebrated with clients as grandchildren were born, children got married, retirements were achieved, and houses were bought and sold.
At Meridian, we experienced the same dichotomy—despite the nerve wracking market plummet in March and the challenges of closing the office and working separated for months, we were excited to remotely cheer as Lucy got married. We celebrated as Sarah Irving passed her CFP exam, Tyler graduated with his Masters in Accounting, and Kira joined our firm last month. So, while our hearts break for all of the losses of 2020, we are thankful for the moments that we can celebrate.
We are ready to turn the corner into a hopefully better year, but we are very grateful for the little bits of joy that 2020 did hold. And as always, we are very thankful for opportunity to serve our clients as we navigate a tumultuous year together.
We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year—and we hope that you find bits of joy in this holiday season~