2020 Recap

Like Bubba said to Forest Gump – “I’m gonna lean up against you, you just lean right back against me. This way we don’t have to sleep with our heads in the mud.”

And that’s what we’ve done…for almost a year now. Maybe life really is like a box of chocolates…

To My EMR Family –

I typically send out a little recap letter of the previous year at the beginning of every new year. I’ve been putting off writing this and I am not even sure why. Other than 2020 is not exactly something I WANT to recap. I don’t really want to think about it. I don’t really want to review it. Not because it didn’t have its positive nuggets of amazingness throughout, but more because I have thought about and reflected upon, prayed for and meditated over 2020 more than I have on any other year of my life. It’s one of those things that I’m just kinda over. It was hard. For pretty much everyone I know. And it’s still hard. Nothing is normal. I don’t buy the whole “new normal” because nothing has settled long enough to become anything. It feels like this relentless hold of the breath…waiting to exhale, if you will.

At the risk of being a broken record, I can say that I saw beauty and community and family inside of EMR like never before. I saw us all stick together like glue. Which honestly has felt like this little safety bubble. Truly, it feels like EMR created this little bubble and we have just been floating through this seemingly never ending holding of the breath together. Whenever I would walk through the doors in the morning…at least that still felt normal. Stable. Grounded. So thank you, each and every one of you, for being a part of this amazing bubble of normal.

I could go into a bunch of business statistics and metrics and talk about our financial stability. I could talk about how important it is to take excellent care of each and every customer we have the opportunity to service, but you have been hearing that endlessly too. I could tell you that for the first few months I was high on adrenaline of trying to figure out each step of madness. Then I was exhausted for a couple of months still trying to figure out each step of madness. Now, I am just kinda putting one mad foot in front of the other.

I’ve learned (and practiced) in 2020 more than ever to stay in the present moment. To take it one day at a time. To understand that nothing stays the same, nothing is static, everything changes, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Flexibility, resilience and grounded presence is key to survival and sanity. I have no words of wisdom other than that. I have no great story to tell or answers to offer. Forecasting what will happen in 2021 seems silly.

So, all I will say again is, Thank you. With all of my heart, thank you for being my place of safety and normalcy. Thank you for being my extended family. Thank you for being amazing humans. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for supporting me. Thank you for letting me support you.

-Caroline Kauffman-Kirschnick