A new year is beginning… So let’s put what was a hellish 2020 behind us and welcome 2021 with a warm (virtual) hug!
I guess I’m not the only one to do so, but in the first few days of January, I usually buy myself a small gift to embrace the year to come.
Well, after 2020, I had to do things big and I got myself a brand-new website (gorgeous, isn’t it?!). I must say a huge “Thank you!” to Meg and the whole Websites for Translators team who did such a great job and were so patient with me.
In addition to that, like last year I got myself a “Calendario geniale”: a simple yet ingenious Italian daily calendar with a quote on each page. “What’s so ingenious about it?”, I hear you say. I know these calendars exist in English too, maybe featuring positive thoughts or celebrity quotes. Well, this one has a mix of all kinds of quotes and here’s the magic of it: I swear that last year some sentences seemed totally premonitory or somehow answered questions that were going through my mind. You know, just like when you open the Book of answers and you really get the answer you were expecting (I must say, that’s hardly ever happened to me), or when you read your best friend’s horoscope in your favourite magazine and you send her a screenshot “Look! That’s totally you!” (well, this has happened… more times than I can remember!).
So, last year I couldn’t bear to throw away the pages that perfectly mirrored a particular state of mind on one day or another. And I began to collect them. I’d say that keeping more than 200 days “alive” for 2020 is something of a miracle, wouldn’t you agree?
As I was putting my 2021 Genius calendar on my desk, I looked back at the 2020 quotes I’d kept and here is my absolute favourite: 18th March with a quote from Louise Hay that says “Tratta bene il tuo corpo perché per certo ci passerai il resto della tua vita”. I couldn’t find the original sentence in English, so I would translate it as “Take care of your body because for sure that’s where you’ll spend the rest of your life.” (but hey, I’m no English-native translator, that’s why I only translate to French, my mother tongue). Lockdown in Italy had begun just weeks earlier; I was sadly aware that I wasn’t going to be able to celebrate my 40th birthday as planned… and this sentence reminded me that not everything can be solved with a box of chocolates.
How about you? Do you welcome the New Year by buying yourself a gift too? What sentence would you choose as a memory of your 2020?
Happy New Year to all and let’s hope for a brilliant 2021!
“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it” – Edith Wharton
Many thanks to Catherine Salbashian for reviewing this post. One may think one is skilled in English, but Proofreading by a native English speaker is key to achieving perfectly fluent copy!
(For French, you can count on me 😉)
