#21 Twenty Twenty Twenty One!

The above photo of grey skies prowling the morning horizon beyond the boardwalk at Happy Valley in my hometown of Caloundra, Australia, does a good job of summing up the past two years. Just when you think tomorrow is about to usher in a brighter day, a storm of some form seems to come along and swallow it up.

Worldwide, 2020-2021 has been a testing time for everyone, and it seems that no-one on earth has been spared from the grip of a seemingly never-ending pandemic. Just when you think we're over the numbers and new cases, another wave of COVID-19 comes along, and like cyclones, they now seem to give each outbreak names. While 2020 saw Australians adopt some strange new habits such as wearing face masks and toilet paper hoarding, as 2021 draws to a close, it worries me that the Australia I grew up in has changed as a result. Everyone I talk to seems to think the same thing. We can't wait for life to return to normal. We just don't know what the new normal is going to look like.

It's been a while since I last tagged a post under the banner of 'Positively Phill'. Three years to be honest, and without sounding pessimistic this will definitely be the last one! Not just because the world has changed, but over the course of the  past 10 years I've been blogging, I guess I have too.

I developed a habit throughout my decade of blogging, of always trying to share some positive inspiration and information, be it on writing, life or travel, beyond the guise of simply self-promoting my own books. For the large part it just went unnoticed, as thoughts on writing and tricks on how to handle yourself as a writer, transitioned from well written text entries on writer's pages, to a bunch of infographics and power words on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. It was something I already shared back in January 2018, 'Is blogging still relevant?' and something that seems to have gone further down the toilet in the years since as positivity was replaced by marketability.

And call me old-fashioned... but rattling off a bunch of power words such as...

STRIVE

    BELIEVE

        BECOME

            EMPOWER

...does sweet stuff-all to improve my life or the lives of those around me. So how do you actually stay positive?

As a new era of acceptance sweeps through society, the broom of cancel-culture seems to be following right behind. When it comes to sharing views on how to survive and stay strong in a pandemic, I'm finding it's becoming increasingly harder to have simple conversations with friends and family, without first needing to gauge their stance on matters such as COVID vacination, gender issues, Faith and real estate! Our so called accepting world seems more devisive than ever.

Sunshine always breaks through. Shelley Beach sunrise, Caloundra, Australia.

It's something I've been thinking about more and more while our country has waded through border closures, hotel quarantines, lockdowns, home schooling and the oxymoronic social distancing rule. I've never had such mixed feelings about the state of our country. From panic buying toilet paper in 2020, to panic buying property in 2021. I've never seen greed played out on such a scale in the Australian psyche.

Having called the Sunshine Coast home for the past 14 years, a mass influx of people moving north to escape Victoria and New South Wales has driven local prices up, and the last of my friends away. You can't blame people for thinking that a move north to Queensland sounds like a good idea, and you can't blame locals for accepting offers $200K over what their asking price was. But when houses are being snapped up only to be demolished, as compared to Sydney prices it is still a cheap block of land close to the beach, you know the playing field has changed. Property values go up, and I know of cases where landlords have increased their rent by $200 per week just because they can. If you can't afford it, there's a waiting list of families in Sydney who can. Beyond the inconvenience of a Pandemic, there's now a Pandemic-led geographical redistribution of finances in play.

I find myself somewhere in the middle of all this. Having run a small cleaning business with my wife for the past 6 years, we've had to negotiate the initial COVID-19 panic and work-from-home practices that saw us lose a large portion of our clients, the stress of keeping the business afloat with the Federal Government Jobkeeper Assistance package, and dealing with having my wife no longer able to work after injuring her back. Finally, just when the economy is supposed to be recovering and I'm running the business on my own, I tear the meniscus in my knee and was told I'd need 8 to 12 weeks off work. Like that was going to happen! And all the while I'm trying to continue with several book projects I have underway. Something has to give.

So let's finish this with the positive. There's only two choices you have whenever something goes wrong. You can either let it defeat you on any level of your choosing. Or, rise above it and find a way around the problem. Sometimes finding a way around a problem is simply accepting what you can no longer do.

The key part of the problem seems to be that the world has changed. I'm also getting older, and have to realise that I can no longer work as hard as I have in the past under the false assumption that I'm getting ahead. With business earnings down, expenses up, and general pain and discomfort with my knee on the increase, 2022 will be a year of change.

Here's hoping for brighter days like this in 2022. With my wife at Caloundra boardwalk.

There's a lot of positives to look forward to next year, starting with my wife and I both turning 50. Trusting that all the State border restriction nonsense will be over with, we've booked a holiday to the red centre as our gift to each other, and will (touch wood) be flying to spend 5 nights at Uluru. Come August, our Daughter will be marrying, making Denise and I true empty-nesters. We'll then kick off 2023 by celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary. They're all big milestones that have taken a lot of work to get to! And with all of these milestones marked firmly on the calendar, its also exciting to be working around them as to when we wind up our cleaning business on the Sunshine Coast, put everything into storage, and head off on a working holiday around Australia.

It's something I've always longed to do, but something we've had to put off until our children were both grown, married and in a place of their own. If we don't do it now, there will be Grandkids in the coming years that will prevent us from being away, and who knows if we will both physically be up to the challenge when we retire? Who knows if the average Australian will still be able to afford to retire? It scares me the level of financial stress the next generation has inherited with University HEC Debts and astronomical real estate prices, but at least I know my two are equipped to navigate it.

For a writer who has relied solely on running a cleaning business to earn an income rather than the 16 books I have released to date, the pressure is now on to finish all of my current book projects by mid next year! I want a clean slate in front of me to start a new project on the road, with whatever my camera lens takes a liking to. Heading off after August will give us time to be properly prepared. The alternative... keep doing the same things but having to work harder to make someone else rich, doesn't sit right with me. If that's the game, someone else can play it.

They say change is inevitable, and I agree. But when change comes, you always have the option to change with it, or let it change you. 2022... I'm ready to see what life changes there are!

Positively Phill... Over and out!

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Wherever you are, may 2022 be better for everyone.