Each of you is – under, around and through all the other stuff - a beautiful being of light. My wish is that you become ever more aware of this fabulous truth in 2008.
My other main wish for my new year is simply to let myself be more and more surprised by life, as it progressively takes me exactly where I need to go.
A few years ago, after a particularly tough year, a dear friend told me that he felt that the upcoming year would be a "better year" for me. I know that one the primary forms in which he expresses his genuine, deep kindness is to wish that things get better for you, so I tried to be really gentle as I told him that I didn't want the next year to be "better". Life is always, every year, giving us exactly the experiences we are meant to have. It was a beautiful gift that my friend had such deep compassion for how tough my previous year had been. And if life chose to teach me during the next year in ways that were perhaps a bit more gentle, I knew that I would be very grateful for this. But I knew better than to want to mess with life - it knows a lot better than I what experiences I am meant to have in each successive here-and-now.
(That next year turned out to be pretty much as difficult and challenging as the previous, though in somewhat different ways. But, looking back from here, I can see clearly - at least for much of it - all the true gifts that were contained in all that tough stuff. I also feel compassion for the suffering that surrounded those gifts, but now would not change any of them.)
Please understand if I refrain from wishing you a "happy new year". "Happiness" will come and go for most of us, but the underlying good news of our lives is untouched. A teacher of mine once wished for me that I experience moments of deep peace. I definitely do wish that for each of you.
"Optimism" and "pessimism" seem, more and more to me, just different ways of messing with the truth of the here-and-now - different spins on what is true. We may feel a variety of good things stirring under the surface of our present moment - more great writing, deeply satisfying teaching and facilitating, gorgeous contacts with my luscious new and longstanding friends, etc. But to wish for a "good year" seems like just one more attempt to control my life. I would not be surprised if my next year contains some experiences that do not look or feel "good" in the moment. Rather than wishing for a "good year", I'd rather wish for myself to have progressively more frequent release from the pain created by judging my experiences, my year, my life as good or bad.
I love you all, wish for you ever more release from the pain of judging your life - and look forward with hope and gratitude for all the ways we may connect in 2008. I dream that we may all have more moments of feeling the pulse of life quickening within us, of knowing that we are loved and cared for (regardless of any pain we may currently be feeling) - and to know more all the time that "all shall be well"!
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