Evergreen (#MissedMilestones Contest Entry)

evergreen

What milestones did you miss during 2020?

A three-year anniversary of being seizure-free and surviving brain surgery. Celebrating my diploma in Environmental Management and an Associate of Arts Degree focusing on geography. Winning a Wattys award. Birthday parties, life celebrations/funerals, graduation ceremonies, being accepted into UBCO. 

Those are some of my examples. 

Big or small, we all missed milestones. Some of us suffered insurmountable grief and loss. Anxiety. Depression. Some of us thrived and took quarantine as an opportunity to reflect and heal. To embrace self-care. Perhaps we did/felt both. There's no right or wrong answer. 2020 was a complicated year.

I don't know about you guys, but I missed being able to travel. Not so much to foreign destinations, but within my province. British Columbia, Canada. I missed watching live hockey games and hearing blades scrape against the ice. Hearing the buzzer go off when the Vancouver Canucks would score. Getting ice cream from Parlour in Downtown Kelowna. Visiting places like Nakusp and Whistler and hiking every trail. More importantly, I missed my family.

According to Google, "travel" is defined as "going from one place to another, typically over a distance of some length."

I say to hell with that definition.

Distance isn't equivalent to meaning. Five minutes or five days, you're still travelling. 

So what would I do if I were to travel when deemed safe? 

If I were to travel, time would be spent with my family. It would reunite us and allow for more memories to be made. More crazy pictures to be taken. 

In my wildest dreams, we'd rent a beach house. That's right. A beach house.  A big one right on the water with a dock. On the shores of Vancouver island. There'd be no smoke shrouding BC's mountains, no mention of a pandemic, and no fear, be it fear of wildfires or COVID-19. 

Instead, we'd be sitting around a campfire next to the lake, making s'mores and listening to country music. Playing games of life-sized Jenga, washers, and cards. The sky would be blanketed with twinkling stars. Just writing this, I can imagine the smell of campfire smoke, pine, and musky lake water. Perhaps a hint of bug spray to fend off the mosquitos. My hands would be sticky with burnt marshmallow and melted chocolate.  

During the day, we'd tie floaties to a buoy and bask in the sunshine, reprieving ourselves of the heat every once in a while by jumping into the lake. Our topic of conversation would be our favourite memories while sipping lemonade. 

We'd be far away from the city and reunited. Laughter would permeate the atmosphere, only adding to the special love my family has. How blessed am I to have sixteen family members who get along? Who love each other more than anything in the world? One mom, one sister, three aunts, three uncles, six cousins, two grandparents. 

We're like the forests in BC, composed of coniferous trees and never bowing to the wind. Strong and united. 

A love so evergreen.