Resilience

OilMan and I will be celebrating New Year's Eve the way we celebrate most other evenings...well, perhaps just a little champagne on the stroke of midnight...in New York.  Forcing ourselves to stay up might just be tempting fate....

If I had to pick a single word to define this year, it would have to be resilience. It keeps cropping up, and despite the challenges we have had this year, it seems to be true to its Wikipedia definition which simply says, the capacity to recover from difficulties; toughness.


It came up during the women's march protesting the election of Donald Trump. We were devastated by the results of that election, yet we knit bright pink hats with ears, showed up in huge numbers in a multitude of cities around the world, and were empowered by the experience. I truly believe that we touched off a new awareness of women's rights and the #Me Too movenent was just part of the result.

Here in Sonoma county, after four years of drought, the heavens opened and dumped twice the normal amount of rain on us. Creeks overflowed, trees fell, reservoirs filled and the snow pack in the Sierra threatened more flooding when it melted. We dug ourselves out and were able to enjoy an unusually productive spring.

We have a large garden on a steep hill. But our daughter Dana who does far more than her share of heavy lifting, devoted much of her summer to helping us reorganize it after the housepainters finished. Our summer was spent on numerous projects, so we planned a trip to Yosemite in the fall.

The terrible fires which began the night of October 8 burned down large housing developments, favorite restaurants and rendered thousands homeless. Almost everyone was evacuated or displaced. We had to cancel our trip to Yosemite. But we were among the lucky ones. Although we could not go home for almost two weeks while fires raged all around it, when we did finally return, it looked almost the same as when we left it in the early hours of the morning. It had been a nerve-wracking, exhausting, frightening time, but I am left with unforgettable memories.

The town was a checkerboard of burned buildings, rubble and debris, but signs sprouted all over thanking the first responders. Residents of destroyed neighborhoods got together to help each other. Those whose homes survived volunteered, donated millions of dollars to a fire relief fund and organized benefits. As Christmas approached, lighted Christmas trees began to appear in blackened neighborhoods. 

The only word that seems appropriate to all these events of 2017, from flood to fire, political upheaval to natural upheavals is resilience.  

Happy New Year to all you Blippers, wherever you are and however you chose to celebrate it. May 2018 be a year of good health, good fortune and resilience.