A year of being thankful
As the editor of the paper, it’s often difficult coming up with a holiday theme for everyone to write about. There’re only so many times you can ask people to write about their favourite Christmas memory, favourite holiday food, most embarrassing present, etc. But 2020 seemed to hand me this year’s topic on a silver platter. I asked my fellow writers to tell me/us about what got them through 2020. And as you’ve (hopefully) read, the answers are as varied as the people. There is one common thread, however – we all got through.
As for what got me through – you’re looking at it. Making sure that the Cosmos hit township mailboxes every week was my A1 priority. Was it a challenge coming up with non-COVID-related story material every week? You betcha it was. Was I ever worried that I’d lose every advertiser I had and the paper would cease to exist? You better believe I was. Was I grateful every time I sent the pages to print, knowing another edition had made it to press? More grateful than words can express. But words are all I have, and I can only hope that every person reading this feels the sincerity with which I say thank you. Thank you for continuing to believe in and support this little paper. We do what we do for Uxbridge, and it has given back to us by keeping us going. Thank you, times a bazillion.
Although it occupied the majority of my time, the paper wasn’t the only thing that got me out of bed in the morning. Food. Food got me out of bed. I didn’t know that our Nature Nut Nancy Melcher was a fan of cooking, but now I do, and I see some serious recipe swaps in our future!
I love to cook for my family, and I often get more than a few eye rolls when, not long after the last mouthful of Cheerios has been swallowed, I ask “So, any ideas on what you’d like for dinner?” It’s all about the planning, the anticipation, and the joy of coming home from a day at work and pottering about in the kitchen, making a meal for my family. It’s very June Cleaver of me, but I love making sure that, when my honey comes in from a hard day of farming, he has a hearty, healthy, hot meal waiting for him. And a beer. No slippers, though. He can get those himself.
So, work and cooking and not being incredibly busy – that has gotten me through. I’m used to doing two or three plays a year, and of course we’re drawing a big zero on that this year. I could be putting that time to use planning a show that I was to direct in 2021, but who know what may happen on that front? We’ll have to see.
Not having a show at Herongate Barn Theatre at Christmas time has thrown me – it’s been part of my Christmas season for 13 years, and I feel rather adrift without it all this year.
More than anything, however, I realize how freaking lucky I am. I have work, I have my family right by me, and I have my health. A little inconvenience from having to wear a mask is nothing compared to the hell others are living during this pandemic. I don’t take anything I have or do right now for granted. Not anything. Being grateful – that’s what gets me through.
Have a very Merry Christmas, Uxbridge, and a happy holiday season. 2021 will bring what it brings, and we will continue to get through, just as we have been.