2020 has been an utterly shit year no doubt. Everyone's lives have been affected in so many ways. The deaths, the illness, the political and economic repercussions - on and on the bad news rumbles and we struggle on in the big unknown. Can you believe it's nearly an entire year since the news reports started coming out of China, and life changed beyond recognition?
But not all change has been negative, and some of these changes have been surprisingly for the better. So I'd like to have a thread to talk about the gifts, the postive changes in our lifes bought about by covid 19 pandemic.
For me its swimming in the sea. We live by the coast and though I've always loved swimming (in pools, or the Med) I very rarely swam in UK sea (way too cold even in summer). The kids might get me in the sea a couple of times in high summer, but otherwise I wasn't going in.
We started swimming in the sea in May - led by my kids. When they were being home schooled, and I was WFH, we swam most days. As soon as someone started getting scratchy I'd declare "time for beach" and off we would go. It was something we did together, it was fun, we laughed and it really brought us closer. We would swim, eat lunch on the beach and come home. It was a huge reset button for us all. After every swim we were cleansed, body, mind and soul, and came home feeling much jollier and less stressed (especially important for my anxious stressed 9yo).
I started out being very slow to go in - I was a total wimp/dawdler/would go half in, come out, some days it could take ages for me to get in and the DC would laugh and me and challenge me to get in faster.
When the DC went back to school I started going for a swim after school drop off. By now I had become acclimatised to the (summer) cold water and I could stride straight into the water like a boss. Swimming without the DC was completely different experience. I no longer had to keep an eye on DC in the water, and I became free to enjoy the sea in my own right. I swam out deeper, swam more (rather than played with Dc), met lots of other adults who were swimming and developed friendships and personal connections (all outdoors and socially distanced).
For me being cut off from pretty much all adult company (I'm SP, no family in UK), and living in a farily new town (moved here knowing no one), the swimming beach connections have been vital through 2020. And the post swim physical sensation of wellness and vitality is unbeatable.
The positive impact of these regular swims, getting outdoors, being on the beach, on my & the DC's mental health has been immense. I can't over state how important these swims became to all of us.
And now it is December and I am still swimming 4-5 times a week. The DC have stopped - too cold for them - on the weekends they run amok on the ebach while I swim. Now I am the bad ass swimmer, half woman half seal I joke. 
I LOVE the cold water. I hope to keep going through the winter. Many others across the UK and the world have turned to the sea, lakes, rivers, swimming regularly, laughing and smiling and feeling utterly wonderful for it, so I know my experience isn't unique.
I do think of this as a gift from the pandemic - I don't think I would have made this massive change in my life without it.
So what are your gifts - big or small - from the pandemic of 2020?