2021, what a year this has been!
We started off this year on a high note - it felt like India had skipped the second Covid wave and was somehow cruising (maybe the turmeric in our food was showing its magical colour). However, as the year went on we were hit with devastation after devastation. The times were difficult… grief became a word that very few people didn’t have a close encounter with. Children were dealing with grief at a scale they hadn’t ever dealt with before and while India was crumbling, struggling to get out of the second wave.
Still not losing sight of my goal through Triyoke Raising Parents, this was a time to start putting a plan into action - a dream that I had been nurturing for years - to bring support to parents on a platform that was accessible to all. We powered through and Triyoke Raising Parents was able to start bringing to you workshops and conversations, introducing different topics and aspects across various facets of parenting that we hadn’t been able to before. The collaborations were exciting and the work momentum just went up and up and up.
I leave 2021 with the hope that we will be able to make 2022 a year that puts distance between us and social distancing. While the tools of connection have been priceless in households as they have struggled over these last two years we also know that as humans social distancing is not a sustainable reality.
I marvel at the ability of people around me to bounce back into life and try to create a form of normalcy that’s accessible and available to them. I am humbled by those who are caught in difficult situations and still relentlessly show up in the hope that things can get better.
I had the pleasure today (as I write this note) of conducting a workshop in person. I forgot what the crackle of excitement felt like when we meet in person as opposed to faces on a zoom screen. While I am grateful for this online platform that provided us the opportunity to do so much in times where we could have languished and done so little, I also hope we start trying to reach out to each other in forms that we have before and recognise the importance of collective effervescence.
So here’s to a great virtual 2021 but an even greater in person 2022… here’s to seeing you show up at workshops, in conversations in the parks, in social gatherings where we don’t only rely on what is said and what is read but also on what is felt.
As parents I hope you take some time for yourself to refresh and rejuvenate because you have been working hard, you have been playing the role of a teacher, a parent, a playmate, a friend and so much more to your child. your child has depended on your emotional stability to gain confidence. I was watching a show on Apple TV where they said a parent is like the air host on a flight- even when the flight is in turbulence if the air host is looking calm and composed the passenger feels calm and composed. That's what we have to do as parents. Fake calm till we find calm. We have shown up through this pandemic calm (largely) and composed (not always) and the children have thrived.
But this doesn’t mean that we are not allowed to repair and take care of ourselves.
Find safe spaces, as schools reopen and your children get out of the house - so you too can get out of the house or for you to get into the house with nobody there to take care of so you can bring all that laser focus and attention into caring for yourself.
I leave you this year with a seven day reconnect you can through Christmas! You can use it after Christmas too, you can use it whenever you like! It is a reconnect for you and your family to help you restart the journey to refresh this fatigue, so that we can start 22 on a hopeful note.