Looking Ahead

We’ve made it. We arrive wounded and weary, but we’ve completed our pilgrimage around the sun once again.

As we move through this first day of the year two-thousand and eighteen, I squint in amazement. We’ve somehow survived. We are somehow still standing. The trials that we’ve faced this past year have stretched our patience and pulled aggressively at our knotted bones, but this has ultimately elongated our reach. And now, we are standing taller and more assured than before, our fingertips extending closer to that thing upon which we’ve fixed our promise and our gaze.

Our hands may be calloused, but they’ve grown more confident in our ability to clutch firmly onto the Truth and the vigor that has incited the changes that we need to make, and the change that we are indeed becoming. We’ve scraped our knees upon the tenacity by which we live—this grit that has thrust itself under our skin as we stagger about this toilsome path. But this is the path that we have chosen because we know to the Core that we are capable, and that the reward will be much greater because Faith tells us so. Our faces are bruised from the blows that the year’s dreadful events have hurled at our eyes, but we still can feel the sun brushing her beaming warmth upon our foreheads, anointing us as we begin again.

Today, we inherit the wisdom gained from yesterday's adversity.

They thought that they could blind us, but we are seeing more clearly now. When we squint, it is not because we are afraid, but because it is the nature of our eyelids to shield us from the appalling tragedies that abound. We squint because we are deeply focused on the horizon. We squint because this Hope glistens much too brightly for our eyes to absorb all at once. And as we squint, we come that much closer to closing our eyes and approaching that necessary pause—the moment when we dim the noise, meditate on our intentions, pray for resolve and the strength to carry through with our plan for action. When we close our eyes, it would be dismissive to say that it fades to black. If we take the time to observe closely, we’ll see that the darkness that lies behind our eyelids contains an entire spectrum of color. These colors are created by the light that exists within our eyes. How utterly sublime this is. Not only do we contain this light, but we also have the ability to reflect this light that we are. 

Sometimes we need to close our eyes to see in the dark.

Life will sometimes blindfold us before sending us down paths that are dappled with stumbling blocks, but we’ll use them as stepping stones. We’ve learned that they serve us better this way. At first, we’ll teeter precariously upon the rugged boulders that pierce cold our feet. But our soles are warm with life and with purpose, and they will soften the stone beneath us, just as water does to clay that's been freshly plucked from earth. And we’ll be able to sink our toes into the footholds that have been molded by our weight and the load that we’ve carried upon our weary shoulders. Then we’ll release these burdens so that we can move ahead, sure-footed on this Journey that knows us by name.

Time is on our side. And once again, she has carried us into this moment so that we can begin anew. Time has kept her eyes and hands upon us, propelling us full circle with such grace and precision around our ever-illuminating sun. We start again. This time, with more insight, more knowledge, and more experience to guide us.

And so we meet this new cycle with great hope for the forthcoming year as we call for a more robust determination to crystalize our dreams, a more vigorous fight for a better world (the world within and the world without), an enduring courage to make wiser choices (even when they are not the easier ones to make), an openness that allows for deeper insight, and a faith that will surpass all understanding, setting into motion all that exists in the realm of possibility. We will bind the wrists of impeding falsehoods that insist on taking root whenever the world tries to convince us of our limits. We will recognize the deception. And we’ll cast aside those decaying seeds and plant new ones in the rich soil that we’ve tilled with our scathed hands. These we’ll bury in fertile plots wherein young sprouts are called forth by our benevolent Sun. We will trust in the process and know, without doubt, that they will take root because the verb for Faith is Knowing. And they (we) will multiply. 

They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds. - Mexican proverb

Like those young saplings, we shall rise. Like flame.

Let’s set it afire so that we can contribute to its purification in the way that fire refines gold. Let’s set it ablaze with the passion and zeal that we have for the betterment of humankind. Let's set it aflame and offer kindling to the things that roam the earth with us. We'll watch the sparks scatter upon those that root deep toward Earth's center, and we'll stir up that fire as they yield for us the fruits that sustain Life.                                                                                                                               

May this forthcoming year, and all the days thereafter, quicken our Spirits with a flooding of hope and possibility.

May we go forth in peace that we might bring Peace to others. 

May we have the courage to claim the Abundance that awaits our arrival.   

May we lengthen our spines so that we can confidently march with our shoulders square, striding toward the land that we’ve been promised.

And so it is.