I’m sat here on day two of 2021 and like most people I am reflecting on 2020 and what I learnt from it. I initially could not wait to see the end of this year – I’ve lost an Aunt in such a Covid-19 way that she gave up the will to exist anymore as she had thought in her dementia state, that the reason why she no longer had any visitors was because we’d forgotten her. She was too far gone to realise nor understand that the hospital she was in had to go into lockdown due to a pandemic. So she literally starved herself to death.

Then there was the loss of one of our four-legged family members. Granted it was due to a tumour but he had to suffer longer than normal due to not being able to go to a vets to get him checked out when we first began to notice something was wrong back in March, at the beginning of the UK wide lockdown.

Yet all through last year there was a word which I clung onto…. Adapt

I had to adapt regular habits in favour of things which enabled me to survive and carry on. From getting up at the crack of dawn each Saturday so that I could get further up in the queue at my local supermarkets and not have to wait more than 4 hours in order to get food. To adapting to the idea of working form home and not having to commute to work. When society was more lax towards the end of August I had to adapt back to having to commute which was awful but I did what I had to do.

So with 2021 comes a new word…Change

Whilst with Adapt I would acclimatise to new circumstances, it seems like with Change this new season will see me moving into something completely new. As to what that is, I’ll save until the end of the year and let you know.

But likewise this Adapt/ Change involved with 2020/21 is not limited to just myself. I was blown away recently to witness how ferocious my cute resident kitty actually is! For the longest and especially while his brother was alive he was relegated to the front garden and a busy main road as his territory. When he’s indoors he just oozes with concentrated cuteness and at every opportunity, he’ll let out this kitten-like high pitched “Meow” which prompts a tummy rub/food/playtime/singing… he just has us well trained. Indoors, he was just a bundle of fluffy cuteness and came across as though he wouldn’t hurt a fly. And he doesn’t in the summer – he’ll just let those poo-eating blue bottles plant their filthy bodies on any kind of food and stare at them until he nods off. But a couple of weeks ago the whole household was ablaze with the fact that we saw a very different side of Vinny, a scarier, sinister, Hannibal Lecter kind of kitty who did not bullishly chase any Toms off his territory but who stalked a Tom cat out of the back garden, to the degree that the neighbour’s cat will need therapy. I mean the other cat was so freaked out by the fact that he was being pursued by an animal who made no sound, but made it plainly obvious that he was going to murder him, and bury him under the patio, that the other Tom ran all the way home!

So this is my conundrum – was that an adaptation from the resident kitty or a change?