Essay: My Blessings Jar 2020

By Sylvia Hubilla

Round Rock, TX

The first thing I do on the first day of a New Year, is open my Blessings Jar and pour out all the little notes of gratitude for blessings received in the year that just passed. And then I enjoy reading all the blessings received and prayers answered.

My first entry for 2020 reads, “1-01-2020, Thank You, Lord, for this gift of a New Year!” 2020 – this year is going to be Perfect! Like 20 / 20 Vision, right? So here’s the picture of my first entry in my 2020 Journal.

Of course, we said goodbye to 2019 and welcomed 2020 with 13 round fruits on out table, 13 grapes each with family, and a toast of wine, while wearing our best polka dots fashion, with all the noise and smoke of fireworks firecrackers and sparklers (for me) to ward off and shoo away all the evil spirits!

We got everything covered! Right?

Or so we thought!

Boy, were we ever so wrong! Here’s my entry for March ‘2020 in my journal.

By March, my world, as I know it, came to a screeching Halt!

Is it the Law of Attraction? It seems 2020 brought on an avalanche of everything that is wrong, or could possibly go wrong in the world!

A Global Pandemic, for starters! Violence and unrest, Racial bias coming out in full color, political and government disunity and disfunction, threatened and troubling elections.

Even wildfires, hurricanes and earthquakes thrown into the boiling mix in the cauldron for flavor!

In the meantime, people were falling like flies.

I lost my brother in March in the Philippines, my neighbors from across my apartment here, husband and wife at the same time, just a week ago!

But as my faith, and history tells us, even as all these are happening, we see that we are a resilient lot! We are created, and programmed to survive, in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances!

And true enough, the whole world switched into survival mode. It was beautiful to behold! The courage and selflessness of frontliners, first responders, essential workers, even ordinary people – came forward to help, in any way they can, to ask, “What can I do to help?”

We could not see the smile behind the mask, nor feel the warmth of a hug. But we surely felt the Love, and saw and heard the Heart!

Surely what we have gone through and are still going through at this moment, is in Biblical proportions for sure. But so is humanity’s response. It brought out what is Best and Good in humanity.

And this too, is in Biblical proportions! The courage, especially of doctors and nurses and medical workers who rush to help and save lives is of Biblical proportions, “For there is no greater Love than this,” to risk your own life to save another.