Let's Hew You

‘London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.’

As children, as girls, we would sing this song, arms raised, forming a ‘bridge’ under which our playmates would pass.

We entered this year, 2020, with such aplomb and confidence. We stepped into this year believing it to be the year of all years (which it has proved to be, just not the way we thought that it would have been). We strode into this year with our vision being properly checked, or so we thought. We strode into the year and maybe what this year was, was a real testing of our vision as humankind. Was all that we thought well-established and well-constructed really so? Had we rather constructed a London Bridge of sorts that, as we started to wax warm in the year, began to fall down on us? Economies buckled, unemployment soared, healthcare systems were burst at the seams, lives were lost, illness weakened us…things just fell apart.

Maybe the trepidation with which we entered 2000 and 2012 should have accompanied us into 2020. But, you know what they say, ‘Pride always precedes a fall’. So, for having stepped into and come out of 2000 and 2012 with nothing falling apart, with no world ending, with no predictions coming true, we were filled with the hubris that caused 2020, the new London Bridge, to really fall.

So much of the systems and structures that we had built were torn down in this year. So much had to be reset, remodelled, reshaped, re-established, and reconstructed. Maybe, that is what this year was really about – acquiring the visual acuity, the 2020 vision really needed to bring us back together. Maybe our ‘London Bridge’ had been falling apart all along and 2020 finally shaped the lenses we needed to see this bridge falling.

Consider: as we savour the last several days of 2020, how have you been re-shaped? In the children’s song, there were a few recommendations put forward for mending the bridge – iron bars, pins and needles, even silver and gold. However, no matter the proposed solution, nothing sufficed. No solution was foolproof. Has that been your year? I hope not.

I hope, rather, as it has been for me, that 2020 reshaped you into a version of you that you could never have foreseen – a resilient, creative, tried and tested version of you. I hope that 2020 has reconstructed you into one who is confident that, no matter the challenge, you will make it. 2020 didn’t destroy. Not at all. Rather, 2020 sanitised, purified, mended, restored, repurposed and rebuilt, and that’s what I’m taking into 2021 with me.

In conclusion, I say, ‘Thank you’ at the close of a year that has mended me way beyond that which I could ever have foreseen. I hope that 2020 has mended you, I hope that new life has been breathed into you, and I hope that this year has set you up well, always to make it through.

Love, peace and joy to you and yours in 2021!