2020 hasn’t really been a year for lessons – at least, not the sort that you can wrap up in a sentence and paint on a wall. I know less about who I am and what I’m meant to be doing than I did at the beginning of the year. Nothing’s crystallised for me; the only epiphanies have shown me where not to go. I have no words of wisdom – at least, none that I think anybody else won’t have worked out for themselves.
I cannot say that in 2020 I learned that…
Which is not to say that 2020 has not been a year for learning.
I have learned how…
… to change a tap and paint a wall
… the security light on the garage works
… an apple or a pear will just come off in your hand when it’s ready to be picked
And I have learned about…
… staying in the same place for a long time
… walking the same walk, summer and winter, morning and noon, rain and sun and snow
… going deeper rather than broader
… time and space, time and space
… finding large things in small spaces
Putting that into small words, one lesson, is at present beyond me. Perhaps that will come next year. Perhaps it doesn’t need to happen at all.
Kathleen Jowitt 