ONE

By Lynda

2020. What a year? And what pain and sadness you are still wreaking? 

So I found it rather cathartic to think of all the things, people, places and habits which have go me through the corona coaster. And decided my star would try to capture it all collage style... small stones, sea shells (Welsh holiday) and all. 

Needless to say lockdown has comprised of quite a lot of alcohol and gardening. I’ve been lucky, I know, to have a patch of albeit untidy and muddy garden this year. And I’ve spent more time on it than ever before. It still is a bit scrubby and muddy but it had a lot of flowers too. And I managed to grow marigolds and Californian poppies for the first time. 

I rediscovered our wonderful Marshes, along with most of Hackney of course, and was truly grateful for the wide open skies, near limitless space and the various friends who we walked, picnicked, cycled and foraged with (restrictions allowing). 

And I was super grateful for my family, for extra times to hang out with teenagers who may not have usually chosen that socialising option and for a solid relationship which can bear the pressures of lockdown.  And grateful for a job which has (so far) been secure at an organisation which has cared well for its employees though its income has been severally affected. 

Light and hope is what we think of at Advent. And I want my star to help us remember those shafts of light and hope: the wonderful NHS in all its myriad departments, the delivery drivers, shop assistants, shelf stackers and care workers. Many of whom are under paid and under valued and who paid a heavy price - sometimes with their long term health; sometimes with their lives. 2020 you've taken many things, but you've given something too - a commitment to a world where things might look different, where neighbours look out for each other and black lives really do matter.