My Year 2020 — Covid, Chaos and Confusion — World of Xpilar Challenge by @stef1

I almost forgot about this challenge in the World of Xpilar community, which @stef1 kindly invited me to... so rushing to squeeze in an entry before the deadline!

We Had Such High Hopes!

There was something hopeful about the start of 2020. It was going to be the year where we were finally done with our small brick-and-mortar art gallery here in our town, and I was going back to focusing 100% on my book editing business, and and doing my artwork.

Lavender and ladybug in our garden, summer...

It had been hard (and expensive!) to have an actual shop — we'd hoped to do well with the tourist trade, but a number of things went wrong (including our premises flooding as a result of a freak rainstorm) and we ended up shutting down after four years and a lot of lost money and sleep.

But in 2020, we were going to get back on our feet!

At least... that's what we thought. But then things started going horribly horribly wrong...

Deception Island, seen from the beach below our house

"Patient Zero" in the USA

The first confirmed coronavirus outbreak in Washington state, and in the US, happened at a nursing home in Kirkland... very close to the time when our adult son and daughter went out to eat a place popular with the staff of said nursing home, and then they went to the movies, also at a theater very close to this outbreak... and less than a week later, they were both quite ill. This was before anyone really knew anything about the coronavirus, except as "something that was happening in China."

As such, we all just thought they had a bad flu. In retrospect, there's a high likelihood it was Covid, because at the time no flu outbreak had been recorded in the area, and their symptoms fit well with what we now know about Covid.

Being young and strong, they felt really bad for 3-4 days, and then went back to normal.

Baby bunny on the lawn, spring...

Lockdowns and Broken Plans

As I mentioned, one of my goals for 2020 was to make a much greater effort to get my art out in public, by attending a larger number of arts and crafts show and other special events as a vendor.

Mrs. Denmarkguy and I had done so in years past, but on a very limited schedule because we couldn't leave our shop to travel to these events.

Our first show of the year was scheduled to be the UFO/Paranormal Summit in March, where Mrs. Denmarkguy was also going to be a presenter. We'd been to the show in years past, and it was a great event for my artwork, with lots of support.

Alas, it was not to be... as the first "stay-at-home orders" took effect. It was disappointing, of course... and it also meant not making an estimated $2,500 in sales from the long weekend.

My artwork consists of intricately painted mandala patterns on beach stones

The Slow Slide Towards Nothingness...

Being self-employed during these past ten months or so has not been easy.

I make most of my living from editing books (free-lance), selling my artwork, and I have a couple of reselling type gigs on eBay. Mrs. Denmarkguy works as a counselor and spiritual coach, and a substantial number of her clients are face-to-face sessions, in addition to online.

With people getting furloughed and laid off from their jobs, uncertainty took its toll on my editing business. People are less likely to throw $1,500 at a professional editing job for their book when they don't know where their next paycheck is coming from.

Close-up of a honeysuckle flower

Meanwhile, nothing was stopping me from creating art, but the one shop in town where I had work closed, and we could no longer go to Arts and Crafts shows because they were canceled.

And the eBay businesses? Well, they also lagged.

Mrs. Denmarkguy's number of clients dropped off by about the amount of her face-to-face sessions.

So we found ourselves living on about half our normal income... and having to borrow money, simply to live. We almost lost our home to property tax foreclosure...

Freshly built raised beds in the garden... SO much work!

Bright Spots: Stimulus Checks and Gardening!

As spring moved along, and the world started to look increasingly uncertain (especially with empty supermarket shelves), we decided that it would be a good idea to substantially increase our home vegetable garden and grow a lot more of our own food.

Helped in part by the US "stimulus payments" of $1,200 per person, we bought supplies and a large load of high quality topsoil to increase our production.

It was a lot of hard work to build nine large raised beds and then shovel about 30,000 lbs (13,500kg) of soil into them, but it was also very rewarding work... and a good way to stay in physical shape when we couldn't really go anywhere, due to mandated movement restrictions.

In the end, we grew more than 500lbs (225kg) of fresh food, some of which we ate, and some of which has been "stored away for winter."

Our garden was definitely the "highlight" of our year, and it was also our little oasis of sanity in a world that seemed to have gone quite mad.

Yours truly with the first cabbages of the new garden!

Summer: Our Daughter & her Fiancé Buy a House!

Bucking the trend of doom and gloom, in the middle of the summer our daughter (29) and her fiancé took the plunge and bought a home... bucking also a national trend in the US where "young" homeowners are getting rarer and rarer.

We're super proud of them, of course... not only for becoming homeowners, but also for taking on the huge task of modernizing and bringing life to a delapidated "fixer-upper."

We were a bit skeptical... buying in Seattle where a two-bedroom "fixer" cost them almost US $500,000, but they have done great!

As I write these words in late December, they have created a beautiful home, probably already worth considerably more than they paid for it.

Sunflowers in the garden, late summer

Canceled Holidays and Family Gatherings

This was definitely a year during which things changed, a lot.

Since I am Danish by nationality — even though I have lived in the USA for many years — we try to go back to Denmark to visit family every few years. That was one of the things that was canceled, this year.

The annual family gathering and camping trip was also canceled. It's where we normally get to spend time with the grandkids... but that did not happen.

The annual Labyrinth Society Gathering (an organization we belong to) was canceled.

And, of course, all the Holiday Arts and Crafts fairs we'd hoped to be vendors at were canceled.

Pickling carrots from our garden, fall

Virtual Space and Zoom Fluency...

This definitely was the year where we got much more familiar with tuning in to "virtual connections." At least we managed to maintain some connection with friends and family...

Mrs. Denmarkguy and I were talking about it earlier this evening, and calculated that we have had a total of seven people come to our house since March 1st. That's about the normal flow for two weeks!

I have been working as best I can to build my online business, but it has been very slow going.

Another example of my artwork

On the Upside: The Invitations of 2020:

It would be easy to just conclude that 2020 was "a horrible year." Whereas it definitely was a difficult year for most of us, maybe there are also some pluses to consider:

With all the lockdowns and travel restrictions, we had a lot more time to stop and consider what really matters in life. And it's not "stuff" or "status" or "power and connections," it's family, friends and the connections we make. And it's being at peace with yourself.

Personally speaking, I found more time to write and to reflect on life.

Lockdowns also invited us to take a closer look at the entire world.

Winter sunset...

I remember back in April when pictures started showing up from normally polluted world cities that suddenly had clear sunshine from bright blue skies... in ways that had not been seen in 40-50 years!

I remember seeing photos from Jalandhar in India, where you could see the snow-covered Himalayas from 200km away... unseen in decades. And I remember thinking that in some way, perhaps this was also the planet "re-setting" from the "virus" that is Human beings and their tendency to overexploit resources.

2020 also seemed like a reminder to think before you do stuff... to actually act with consciousness and mindfulness, because what you do affects more than just yourself.

I don't know what 2021 will bring, but all we can do is take one step at a time, and hope it's something better than 2020!

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome weekend!

How about YOU? How was YOUR 2020? Do you think 2021 will become a better year? Or is it going to be "more of the above?" As always, comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20201225 23:40 PST
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