MY EDMONDS NEWS Posted: December 12, 2020 Editor: What a year it’s been. We’ve almost made it, but not without a lot of scars, pain, frustration, and pure exhaustion. I hope you have also found some joy – some joy in spending more time with the people in your home, connecting remotely with people maybe you haven’t for a time, some joy in focusing inward on yourself – taking a breath, taking stock. Intense is the word I would give 2020. I’ve had the full pendulum from exhaustion, high anxiety, great sadness, to joy and rediscovery. My sadness is deep for the state of the world, outside of the obvious pandemic. The division in our world is deep and wide. And that breaks my heart. I hope we find a way to disagree and still show respect for one another. Find out the actual situation or truth before jumping to conclusions. Remind ourselves to not judge, to show grace, to show empathy… to be kind. My grandma would always say, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” The world can use a dose of my grandma’s advice about now. While I don’t think we only speak if it’s something nice being said (because sometimes we need to speak the hard things), I do think we can do it respectfully. And I believe that is what my grandma was trying to convey.