Welcome 2021

Happy New Year 
A Time for Pause, Reflection and New Memories

  

 by Karen Better Carlin

2020, it was a year like no other.  Well, 2021 is here and it looks to show signs of hope and the promise of a new and maybe even better normal. This includes, of course, a fantastic celebration of all of us, The Lynnfield High School graduating class of 1970 Reunion in September, 2021.

Since I joined our wonderful little troop working on the LHS 50th (plus 1) Reunion a lot has happened.  We have all experienced some personal losses in the last 18 months in one way or another, and collectively we share the loss of the guy who got all this started. Brent Wilkes, you are missed by many and remembered with love and gratitude for the special sort of man you were and life you lived.

As we enter this new year, 2021, I am carrying some valuable lessons forward from this past year.  It was a Christmas like no other.  Life is always changing and now being 68 (and delighted that most if not all of you are in the same place).  I just want to share a few reflections with which some of you may identify.  This year the Christmas season did not carry all the glitter and hoopla of normal times. There were no big noisy, festive gatherings, no rushing around in traffic and not even many traffic jams for that matter. But what was important shone through more clearly, without those distractions.  For me, being connected to loved ones and dear friends was even more important and was made possible through that miracle of technology.  Thank you Zoom, FaceTime, Whats App etc.  Somehow in our physical separation, we have had to work a little harder, to get connected in a more substantial way, without the trimmings and distractions of our pre Covid life. Sadly, some of us have lost beloveds in this time; families that have been struck especially hard by this virus and others by the unrelenting tentacles of addiction. But with these losses maybe we are all pulled together a little closer, the threads of this life’s tapestry weaving us closer together in a new and simpler way. 

As 2021 gets underway I hope I can carry with me the lessons of this year like no other. Lessons of patience and tolerance, the lesson to cherish our connections with those we love and care about and to know that we will find a way to sustain that connection.  I don’t know how Zoom works but I am sure grateful it has emerged as such a great tool in this time of separation.  And, in this special case of our LHS class of 1970 it has been a gift to reestablish that connection with all of you.  There is so much that binds us. Some of our memories of decades past may vary but those common experiences in a time of The Beatles, the Moon Landing, The Northeast BlackOut of 1965, the Red Sox of 1967, JFK, RFK, MLK and so many more will keep us connected in an incredibly special way.

In closing, I invite you to jot down and share any of those fuzzy, fun or even challenging memories with us here on OUR Website (instructions are provided below on how to share your reflections or memory).  I have 2 examples I look back on and laugh or want to hug my child self.  My first memory is when I learned the words to that outrageous song Louie, Louie in Geography Class with Mrs. Linder in the 7th grade.  I wrote them in my school notebook.  Later that evening doing my homework in the kitchen, I could not find my notebook anywhere until I investigated the trash can.  My dearest mom, never said an actual word, but boy did I get the message. As I write this I’m sort of sorry I never asked her what she actually thought about that incident!!  The second memory is proof that there is life after heartbreak.  8th grade was not a happy grade for me, turning 13 in November my dear mom tried to cheer me up by suggesting a birthday party.  As only a 13-year-old girl can, I cried (and cried and cried) that I couldn’t have a party because I didn’t have any friends.  Well, here I am more that 5 decades later and you are all my friends and I hope you know I am yours.  As it says in one of my favorite books, I will neither regret the past nor shut the door on it.  So please, share a memory, have a laugh, open your heart, lets be connected in 2021! 

With love, 
Karen

Remember When .... Instructions for sharing a memory;

Log into the Website, locate MEMBER FUNCTIONS and click on Post Announcement. Providing a Short Name is optional.  There is no need to select an Expiration Date. In the text box enter your name first folllowed by your memory.  Click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the page and Submit New Announcement and you are done, we will do the rest. Your reflections or memories will be posted on the bottom of the WELCOME PAGE as they are received.