2021 is a crossroads. Choose the path wisely!

Faced with the battles of 2020, some people only managed to survive. Others not even that.

The mourning for the ones we lost was also the mourning for the way of life that we suspect can no longer exist. Those who have not felt this, at least a little, are as unprepared for 2021 as they were for 2020.

Changing is letting go of what is known and that, of course, is frightening. But we evolved individually and as humanity. If change is slow and gradual we handle it well; if it is sudden, we have more difficulty. But it happens constantly even if we don't realize it. However, few times in history we have had the possibility of changing in such a visible choice of paths: one path is to live as we have always lived, trying to resume life exactly as it was before the pandemic. The other way is to use what we have gone through and learned - and suffered - to build a different kind of relationship with people, with the environment around us and with ourselves. So, even though 2020 is the year to go down in history for all the challenge it brought, it is 2021 that has the potential to change the future. One year was for enduring and the other will be for acting. And it is our actions that define who we are and where we are headed.

It was abruptly that 2020 took us out of the automatic. We were forced to slow down, break the routine and face pains that we didn't even know were there. In this place of insecurity, we once again ask ourselves important questions that, in the rush of days, we don't ask. Questions like: “Do I need to be here?”, “Is there another way to do it?”, “Is this what I want for my future”, “Am I that happy?”... Surprisingly, a bad moment took many people for better decisions about how to live and what to prioritize. And if, individually, this led to such a positive change in behavior, imagine the effect it could have on the collective. Who knows if the crisis we are facing will eventually lead us to a better place?

So, at the end of the year, don't get too attached to the rituals of the past, because much of what was can no longer be, and everything is fine! Maybe this year the house isn't full, maybe it's not time to crowd the beach anymore. Perhaps the fireworks can give rise to a moment of silence and contemplation. For it is possible that this year some things have changed forever, but change is just another name for evolution and evolving is the goal of all beings. Don't be afraid of the new. Happy 2021!

Elivelto Corrêa.