We lost a lot of things this year.

We lost people who died, the ones who left voluntarily, and those we pushed away to establish boundaries.

We lost jobs, our finances plummeted, and marriages were tested and, in some cases, completely fell apart.

We lost our mental health. We struggled with depression, addiction, anxiety, eating disorders in an attempt to numb our pain.

We were left broken by this year; by its cruelty, the loss, and violence.

We’ve learned who people were. And a lot of the time we didn’t like what we saw. Because we saw people at their very worst.

We carry more grief.

We carry more resentment.

We carry more doubt.

We’ve taken on the hard, every single one of us.

But we’ve gained perspective.

We now know for certain what is important.

We’ve learned it’s okay to slow down.

We’ve learned how much we need other people.

Because we can lose it all, and the important thing is we have our health and each other.

This year has taught us that perspective is everything, from Black Lives Matter to Covid. We’ve learned so much. We’ve done a lot of listening. We’ve done a lot of sitting around. We’ve had almost too much alone time.

Our world will forever be changed from 2020, but so will we.

Perspective.

Something we will all take into the New Year.

This post originally appeared on the author's Facebook. Her book "Living FULL: Winning My Battle with Eating Disorder" is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2O4mJId