Denver Catholic

10 DECEMBER 2020 | DENVER CATHOLIC HAP PY N E W Y E AR W hen we look back at 2020 in the history books one day, I believe the universal theme will be "suffering." Whether that suffering took the form of illness, death, financial ruin, mental health struggles, or social isolation, it's safe to say that 2020 took no prisoners. It has become fashionable to lament the dumpster fire that was this past year, and I've indulged in my fair share. But I am also convinced that 2020 had a rela- tively thick silver lining, and it's this: all the band-aids came off. After the past year, I can safely say that I am intimately acquainted with all my scars and shortcom- ings in a way that leaves no room for doubt. Diagnosis: human. I am frail, I am fallible, and it seems like I found 100 new ways to fail my friends, my family, and my God during the previous 12 months. What's so silver about that lining, you might be wondering? Well, it's this. The masks are off. Er, well, perhaps not the actual masks, but the ones that we wore even before we all knew the term "N95." The ones that we'd worn so long and so comfortably that we may have forgotten what we looked like behind them. We had names for them like"busyness" and "financially successful" and "resilient and independent" and "unflag- gingly optimistic" and "four sport athlete" and "world traveller" and, oh, 100 other names we'd taken on as our primary identities. And then they were gone. A friend was unburdening her soul in the confessional this past summer of the many fears and frustrations she felt with the draconian new state of affairs and the drumbeat of doom from the media. Father listened with compassion and quiet attention, agreeing that it was really too much for any human being to handle...alone. "Let us make something new of 2020. Let us create something new in our families and in our homes so that in the future, years from now we can point back to the calendar and say 'oh, yes, 2020, that's the year I started praying a daily rosary/going to daily Mass/praying aloud with my spouse every day... Let 2020 be the turning point.'" I still think about his advice to her, nearly half a year later. And while I'm tapping my foot in anticipation of putting this one on the record books, I know that 2021 can only be truly dif- ferent if I do something differently. So here are a few ideas: BY JENNY UEBBING Writer, Blogger and Creator of Off the Charts NFP 5 Ways to Supercharge 2021 I am also convinced that 2020 had a relatively thick silver lining, and it's this: all the band-aids came off."

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