21 from 2021: With Gratitude
Good morning and happy last day of 2021. Did the year track with any of our expectations? Does any year? Of course not. So how, then, should we reflect on the year in its final hours? May I suggest with gratitude? Much has been written elsewhere by more eloquent and prolific bloggers and writers than I about gratitude, so I will skip adding to the discourse and proceed with my list of 21 people, experiences, and things from 2021 for which I am grateful.
I first drafted this list in more or less stream of consciousness, and only did a little reshuffling of the order to create a few logical connections between items, but even that reshuffling was barely a five-minute project before I sat down to actually draft this post, so a lot of my stream of consciousness is preserved here.
Naomi
Naomi and I celebrated five years of marriage in August 2021. We have been through a lot in five years, including two cross-country moves, multiple job (and even career) changes, several periods of long-distance, and a pandemic. I’m grateful every day that Naomi is my life partner through it all, and that we worked through the challenges and celebrated the successes of 2021 together.
Health
Neither Naomi or I have contracted COVID-19, and even beyond that we stayed generally healthy throughout 2021. Even though we live in an age of modern medicine, and we both have good health insurance and paid sick leave, I am still grateful for our health.
COVID-19 Vaccine
I respect the rights of others to disagree, but I have to confess I don’t follow the logic of any arguments that the COVID-19 vaccines are anything other than one of the greatest scientific accomplishments of all time. I get that this whole pandemic has been subject to politicization and misinformation, and that there have been tragic inequities in vaccine distribution. But the vaccines themselves are good things that are saving lives, and I’m grateful that Naomi was fully vaccinated by early February and me by mid-May.
Live Music
I attended two in-person concerts, which is a far cry from what I attended in 2019 (even without counting concerts that year I produced or otherwise attended in a professional capacity), but it moves my total back in the right direction. The aural, physical sensation of hearing artistically-crafted sounds moving through air rather than speakers was something I deeply missed, and I am grateful to have spent just a few hours this year experiencing it again.
Travel
I wrote separately earlier this week to recap my traveling for the year, but I’ll reiterate my gratitude to have been able to travel safely. They were all either short trips or functional trips, but even a few days throughout the year of seeing different places and literal changes of scenery were refreshing.
Chicago Visits
When I first moved from Chicago in early 2019, I knew I wanted to make multiple return visits each year. For obvious reasons I couldn’t meet that goal in 2020, but I’m grateful to have been to my birth city three times to 2021, and on each occasion to see not just my parents and brother but grandmothers and uncles as well, and had time to enjoy a few of my favorite and familiar old spots.
Homecoming
I graduated from Wheaton College in 2011, so simple math put my 10-year reunion in 2021. I am so grateful that my reunion was able to be in-person on campus this fall and that we had mostly excellent weather for mostly outdoor activities. I am also a former Wheaton College employee, so I was grateful for time to catch up in person with former colleagues for the first time in two years, and explore the completed Armerding Center for Music and the Arts.
New Job
I started a new job in April, as finance manager for Capital Partners for Education. I have enjoyed the new challenges, the professional growth opportunities, and being part of an important mission in education, the sector where I began my career.
New Colleagues
I am also specifically grateful for my new colleagues, all of whom who have recognized the challenges of starting a new job via telework and made concerted (and ongoing) efforts to make me feel welcome and integrated into the team in spite of it — and even a couple happy hours!
Old Colleagues
I am also grateful for my old colleagues at Seraphic Fire. Though Naomi and I agreed that Miami was not ever really going to feel like home, there was one aspect of my years in Miami that was hard to leave behind: my Seraphic Fire teammates who became friends and confidants. My farewell dinner was poignant and encapsulated much of what I appreciated about them, and genuinely hope to see them again somewhere at some point.
New Home
The new job meant a cross-country move, and Naomi and I both definitely feel “at home” in our new home town of Arlington, Virginia. Our new apartment is comfortable and conveniently located, and we love being in Arlington with all it has within its borders and all that is in adjacent areas.
New Church
For me, a new home town meant finding a new home church, and fairly quickly I found myself joining Restoration Anglican Church in Arlington. The church I had been attending in Miami was still online only by the time of the move, and since my arrival in Arlington coincided with two weeks past my second primary vaccine dose, I felt safe signing up for a seat at Restoration my first weekend here. It was so enriching to worship in person again, and to celebrate (safely!) communion again for the first time in over a year.
Choir
In addition to producing and attending concerts, a related activity that understandably went away for me during the pandemic was making my own music, specifically in church choir. This summer, Restoration restarted its choir and I couldn’t sing up fast enough. Our first time singing in late summer was an immensely satisfying experience, as was the second time, just a few weeks ago during Advent.
Public Library
I grew up frequenting the local public library, and both in Miami and now in Arlington, Naomi and I both make good use of that service. In fact, we both signed up for Arlington library cards before even getting Virginia driver licenses! At the time we moved, the Arlington libraries were open for holds pick up only, but I found the system-wide collection to be thorough enough to find most titles I wanted, as was the case in the larger Miami-Dade system. I have detailed everything I read this year in my Reading & Books posts throughout the year.
Biking
One advantage of living in Miami during the pandemic winter 2021 was that I could be both safe and comfortable outdoors. I found a 10-mile round trip bike route along the Venetian Causeway to ride almost every Saturday morning the first four months of the year (before our move), and that was a really refreshing hour each week after staring at a screen for most of the previous five days.
Seasons
Even though biking in January in Miami was legitimately refreshing, as a born and raised Chicagoan, I really missed seasons during the two years living in Miami. All summer in Northern Virginia, I eagerly anticipated the turn to fall that never quite comes in South Florida, and it did not disappoint.
All-Day Color
Fall in the mid-Atlantic means colors on colors. One unique feature I noticed is that the colors last later into the fall here than they do, say, where I grew up in Chicago. So much later that, in December, I could enjoy colorful leaves outside my window during the daylight hours, and then after sunset, enjoy the colorful Christmas decorations my neighbors had on display.
Weasley
Our nearly four-years-old American bulldog has journeyed with us from Forest Park to Miami and now to Arlington, and although he was mad at us for a while for the stressful road trip up the east coast, all in all, I’m glad he’s part of the family. He’s been great company on all the days I’ve been working from home, especially on days when Naomi was out (or out of town) at work and I was otherwise home alone.
Public Transit
Like public libraries, public transit is something I grew up frequenting. Miami’s system is not as extensive as some other cities so I was very excited when we decided to make the move to Washington DC with its robust public transit infrastructure. Even beyond the traditional mass transit, there is a preponderance of e-scooters which I use a few times a week for getting around within Arlington. Naomi and I eliminated one of our cars early this year, and except for the move, we hardly use our remaining car at all with Arlington being so walkable and farther destinations easily reachable through public transit means.
Those Who Encourage Hope
I follow a lot of writers, authors, and other content creators on Twitter and other platforms who, simply put, make no space in their work for cynicism but instead relentlessly encourage their followers and readers to be hopeful. Cynicism is so easy to come by that I try to be intentional to pause at hopeful content and re-share it to my own small following. There are times and places to offer critical commentary and call out the injustices in our society, but I like to go a step farther and envision what we should replace it with.
Grace
The phrase “there but for the grace of God” is of course cliche, but it’s a fairly accurate summation of what I believe as a Christian. I believe that it is only by the grace of God that the twenty preceding entries in this list were part of my story this year. Grace, in my view, doesn’t in any way diminish human agency, whether vaccine researchers or those who worked so hard to make travel, my class reunion, and in-person concerts safe this year. Grace is what gives us our agency, sustains us all through the challenges of life, and empowers us to leverage the challenges to create something beautiful. In other words, redemption. I am more and more grateful for the limitless, relentless, redeeming grace of God with each passing year, and 2021 was no exception.
