The Gifts of 2020

Laura I Rendón

January 2021

It is often said
That hindsight is 20/20
A retrospective for Year 2020
Is in order.
On a journey toward wisdom
One inevitably learns a paradoxical truth:
It is when we experience
The most suffering, the most angst
That our greatest life lessons emerge.

Perhaps it was a higher power that
Selected our generation to merit
A world-wide emergency
Of epic proportions.
To be placed squarely in an
Oppositional liminal space
Where warriors meet terror
Where hope meets despair
Where joy meets sorrow.
We became the chosen people
To receive the gifts
Borne of trauma.

The gift of inter-relatedness
My survival is related to your well-being.
The gift of relationships
Our closeness can remain strong
Even with separation.

The gift of a sorrowful broken heart.
Our hearts breaking open
To receive the truth of our existence
And the infinite possibilities that lie before us.

The gift of mercy
Witnessing the suffering and giving of ourselves
With pure tenderness and compassion.
The gift of courage
We are on the precipice
Of creating a new, bold reality.

The gift of the Christmas star
Bringing Jupiter and Saturn together
For the first time in 800 years
Hope illuminating the sky.

I want to believe
That these magical gifts
Were sent by our ancestors
Their illuminative ways of knowing
Unveiled for us to see
With 20/20 acuity
Just one more time.

On the remote island of Mer
Shooting stars are said to carry
The deceased to a distant life.
Burning with fire
These souls initiate a journey
To a new life.

In 2020 our souls were set ablaze
We were given cherished gifts
To reimagine our collective existence
To heal our personal and collective wounds
To establish a powerful foundation
For those coming behind us.

Now we are poised
To access our starseed essence
Gifted with the journey
To expand the parameters
Of our newly-found enlightenment.

What we do with these gifts
Will be our homage of the heart
For those no longer with us
Whose memory is enshrined
In over 400,000 lights
On a solemn evening that initiates a new decade
And that opens a beginning unlike any other.

Realm Shift

Laura I Rendón

March 2020

And so it is that
Now we are being forced to do
What we could not imagine doing before.
Abruptly, almost without warning, and with our old, outworn practices and belief systems
We find ourselves entering a total shift of realms.

It is time to evoke the wisdom of our ancestors, philosophers and sage prophets.
Anzaldúa, she would say we are now living
In Nepantla, in liminality, straddling
The old and new normal.
Atwood would admonish:
The truth is not irrelevant.
Indigenous people would remind us
That the universe is an inseparable whole.
Mama, she would say
Ten mucho cuidado mija. No salgas.
All precious wisdom.

The virus, the fear, the uncertainty
The chilling tales of
Other nations have migrated to us.
An unfamiliar strangeness has taken over our bodies.
Every day begins to feel like a week,
Even a month, some say.

Yes, there is the uninvited darkness
That has crept into our lives.
But Jung would remind us that
The other side of darkness is light.
Yes, the virus kills and fear creates chaos.
But it is at precisely these moments
Of extreme crisis that our human spirit
Presents itself in uniquely soft, endearing ways.

Light, hope, community, sacredness.
It’s in the balconies of Italy and Spain that
Burst with song.
It’s in the women who are
Sewing homemade facemasks for doctors.
In the two-minute prayer
Requesting a miracle
Recited at the same time
Across the world.
In the teachers who take
To their cars to drive in neighborhoods
So that kids can see they are still there
For them.
In a little girl’s social distancing birthday
With friends driving cars by her house
With signs and banners.
In the parents who choose to eat dinner
Every night in the hallway
Close to their quarantined daughter.
In the people who set up Christmas lights
And cook Thanksgiving dinner in March.
In the people volunteering
To bring groceries and medicine
To those in need.
In the therapy dogs who go
To comfort senior citizens outside their windows.
In ordinary people who read children’s stories online.
In virtual watch parties and happy hours with friends.
In the first responders who risk their lives to save others.
In priests who walk the streets of Laredo
To offer comfort and blessings.

Let us remember that darkness
Can bring forth our finest hour.
In this realm shift
We come to know
That a new reality is in store for us
A reordered promised land,
As Luther King would call it.
Now we learn that the I is about the We.

And so it is that
We find ourselves at the verge
Of spaciousness—expanded possibilities.
Those who are coming behind us
Will surely ask the questions of the heart.
How did we cope?
What did we not get right?
What did we learn?
Is it really true that we can:
Isolate in our togetherness?
Socially distance to save our relationships?
Work in a context of uncertainty, confusion and fear
And yet find a sense of stability?
Break open from our rigidity
To find a new foundation for humanity?

I have hope that
We can, as Rilke suggests,
Live the questions now as we stumble
Into the vast territory of answers that
Defy a choice between one or two options.

I have hope that in this
Realm shift we will journey to re-connect
With things that really matter--
Our humanity, our communities, our loved ones,
Our sense of purpose in this life to find
Our perfect centeredness in a shifting reality.