An open letter to 2020, and a soulful song as a wish for you all
During the first lockdown, I received a WhatsApp message from a friend who just wrote and recorded herself singing a song. It was April, 18th 2020.
This song is my wish for a New Year full of hope to the ISE Community of students, teachers, families, staff and leaders.
"Dear 2020,
today it's easy for the mind to go back to when I was about to welcome you and - ironically - I was doing it while exploring the city of Beijing.
In Italian there's a word that could describe that moment, 'spensieratezza', which in English is better translated with 'carefree' or 'light-hearted'. That condition was lost in the first weeks of your beginning, and it will never come back the same way it used to be.
While I was walking through your days I learned that, even if I know one cannot be 'without-thoughts', and never before we have been so aware of the need to be 'care-ful', I can be light-hearted in presence of uncertainty.
I also learned that I can grow stronger the moment I face experiences whose simple thought, beforehand, would make me darken with fear and tremble with anxiety.
So today, when I prepare to let you go, I am aware you were terrible under many aspects, and no useless. Something I cultivated in your mud, like lotus, has been the ability to choose hope rather than despair.
Hope as a feeling is not enough for change, hope is about action and behaviour. Self-doubt and fear in presence of uncertainty can make us blind in front of some options that are available and good even when facing difficulty and pain. As Deepak Chopra puts it, "the difference between those who let their circumstances bring them down and those who choose to embrace the goodness of life and find that comfort lies with the important element of hope: when you hold onto hope, you begin to understand that you are part of a greater narrative that includes both global and personal experiences of joy and suffering. Simply put, hope brings perspective. It can sustain you during the hard times and bring even more fulfilment to the good times."
Here are four ways to cultivate hope:
Seek Inspiration
Hope requires acknowledging that we're part of something greater, and there are pieces at play that are beyond your control. It is built on the understanding that you and your circumstances are not the centre of what makes the world move. This helps you develop a perspective that allows you to go beyond an individual view when making choices and living your life.
Actively choose to get inspired by the good there is in the world: it is always there, even when hidden. Let your inspiration grow into kindness, enthousiasm and creativity, like a seed.
Surround Yourself with Positivity
The who and what you surround yourself with will influence your worldview, reverberating in your own experience of the world. Choose to surround yourself with people, environments, and experiences that bring you joy and encourage you to become the person you want to be. This doesn’t mean that your life has to be all rainbows, it does mean that you should take the responsibility to put some effort into surrounding yourself with what you, yourself, recognise as having a positive influence on your life journey.
Get Involved in Your Community
One of the most effective ways to develop hope is to serve others. When you get involved in your community, you are exposed to different people with different perspectives. You get to witness people taking care of each other. This can nourish renewed faith in the good side of people and remind you that everyone has challenges they are facing: it’s not just you.
Acknowledging this element of common humanity has a powerful impact on our mental health and well-being, through the ways of compassion and self-compassion.
Celebrate
Create a rhythm and mood of celebration to train your mind and heart to see the good in your life. This hope can sustain you regardless of what you’re facing, what you see on the news and the circumstances; it can help you look at your life and say “I’m glad to be alive.”
Let us celebrate, then, this end and this beginning! Let's celebrate our choices, responsibility, taking a stand, lending a hand, practicing deep listening, using loving words and thanking each and anyone who brings light to our lives.
Dear 2020, as your last sun is setting and before letting you go, I want to tell you that something valuable was hidden within you, and I have the intention to see it.
I have no expectations for 2021, I want to continue my journey into growing those seeds that you and the years before you helped me plant.
Goodbye 2020 and welcome 2021, a New Year of gardnening, and watering flowers in the manner of Thich Nhat Hanh."
Giovanna
LYRICS OF 'DON'T BE AFRAID':
Dont' be afraid
Breathe like a tree that dances with the wind
may you feel that I am there with you
Sing like the eagle that flies in freedom
may you feel that I am there with you
Feel the roots that sink into your ground
may you feel that I am there with you
Don't be afraid.
written, played and sung by Cecilia Fumanelli
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