Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the last week of the calendar year are most often a time of constants. At Christmas we sing the same carols and songs we sang as kids, watch the same timeless movies, “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge and his ghosts don’t get any less scary, while we have our hearts warmed by “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

We decorate the tree with some of the old decorations that have been handed down and open presents Christmas morning and eat the same turkey, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce that our mothers and their mothers before them prepared. There is something comforting and grounding in tradition. It gives us roots and steadies us.

And New Year’s Eve is the same. We gather and wish each other well and wait patiently for the stroke of midnight and sing Auld Lang Syne like our parents did and theirs before them. We talk excitedly about the coming year and discuss the good and bad of the outgoing year.

But this year, 2020, will be a test of those traditions and constants and when it comes to the good and bad of 2020 the scales will be tipped in the negative. Considering since the third month of the calendar year,  March, we have been hit with a pandemic the like of which hasn’t been seen in over 100 years. Everything we knew and took for granted was suddenly and quickly snatched away from us.

On the musical front, live performances and festivals were gone, travel was at first restricted then strictly prohibited. This was going to be a test of our faith, willpower and ingenuity. And somehow we adapted.

Yes, this scourge is terrible but we must find the positives in this sea of negatives. Maybe we needed this down time to reevaluate our lives and slow down and start appreciating what we have instead of what we don’t have.

My heart tells me we are going to come back bigger, better and more focused next year and never again take for granted the gifts we receive every day of our lives.

There’s an old saying “ If you’re ever going to see a rainbow, you gotta stand a little rain.”

Let’s find that rainbow in 2021.