 Here we are at the dawn of another new year. I’ve heard some say that this transition feels a little different than the last few years. There is something of hope in the air. I find myself curious about how the somewhat arbitrary change of date on the calendar can bring such a substantive change in mood or expectation. Is it the idea of a fresh start that allows us to forgive our past transgressions and look forward to a clean slate? That the clock striking midnight and the drop of the ball on Times Square now allows us to believe more in the possibility of change, of reconciliation, of success?
Or perhaps it is the sense of global unity as we follow the change of the year around the globe? Chuckling as we remark that the Pacific Islands and New Zealand are already a year ahead of us as the lazy veil of change sweeps across time zones, slowly bringing renewal to our little corner of the planet. How many events can we point to that occur to all of humanity at once? Perhaps this is what made the pandemic such a significant human experience - for good or ill, we were (and are) in it together. I always love the invitation to enter a collective moment of meditation. Perhaps you’ve received the email that invites everyone around the world to calculate their orientation to Greenwich Mean Time and, at a prescribed time and date, take a collective minute to stop, be still, and breathe together. Sometimes the invitation is to pray. All of us. At the same time: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Pagan, Buddhist, Secular Humanist, all of us together. Studies have been done on the impact of this work, known in physics as the Field Effect. While I’m not sufficiently familiar with this research to speak to its veracity or validity, I know from personal experience that there is something quite powerful in feeling united in a global human phenomenon. For me, I believe this is the seed of hope we feel when the calendar changes to a new year. We can together stop, take a breath, and begin again. We don’t need to wait for midnight. We don’t need to wait for global catastrophe. We can start now. We can begin here – with this breath, sharing the same precious air breathed by the other eight billion of us. Together. Blessings on your journey. Louisa
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