Recently, I had the opportunity to speak for a group of people back home in Seattle. I was so surprised to be asked, and to be honest, a bit nervous. I spent a decade and a half teaching 5-7-year-olds how to count and read through the most animated methods. Speaking to adults is a little different.

I sort of cringed when I watched it but it felt good to take a subject like time and process the juggernaut that is 2020.

Time is really something. I prefer to think about this year in seasons.

The first quarter was significant. I had assumed that the rest of the year would be boring after the first couple of months. One of my best friends died suddenly and unexpectedly at 27. We moved from DC to LA. We started to quarantine in a new house, in a new city. It sucked.

The second part was lonely. It was all about loneliness.

The third was about deployment, sickness, and helping my kids process why they couldn't make new friends and why they wouldn't see their old ones anymore.

The fourth one was about hope, growth, and dreams.

And here we are in December. Sigh.

What about you? How would you frame your year?