It's a new day...

It's a new dawn.  It's a new year.  It's a new beginning.  It's a leap year!

I've always loved the New Year.  Sure, I've loved the celebrations, the toasts, the kisses, the parties (yup, I did Times Square when at midnight a ball dropped and Prince's 1999 played everywhere) and I've even loved a New Years Eve or two alone for serious introspection.  Since I was a kid I loved the idea of celebrating a new beginning, entering a new day and a new year during the darkness of night and I love New Year's Eve fireworks so much more than those on the Fourth of July.  I find the cold winter night to be a time when we humans would only venture out into the night because something REALLY big is happening.

Last night, I felt that something really big did happen.  Something way bigger even than roaming the streets of Times Square and dancing to "1999" in the wee hours of 1999.

I don't know what it is, I won't pretend to predict anything but I do know that the shift I've been feeling, the one that has been aligning inside of me, shifted in a rather profound way today when I awoke - and I'm excited to see what comes with it along the way.

I'm a big fan of love, light, positivity, prayer, intention... of giving what you can and taking care of your own heart so I'm carrying these things with me into 2012.  I encourage you all to follow me into your own loving light in 2012.  We will need it.  We will surely need reminders to look for our own light and we may need to rely on each other's light more than we're prepared to but know that this is precisely the reason we will carry it forward.  The world - and you, and me - we all need the light and the love to help heal our species and bring love and divine intention back to planet Earth.  Our big beautiful temporary home needs us to love her and love each other just as she does by giving us absolutely everything we need to exist here.  If we can learn to love a little more (and this means loving ourselves more too), then we can surely start that ripple effect that we all know changes the balance of things in the world, heals all things and courses through the veins of each and every one of us.

May you be inspired enough to live your dreams.
May you have the courage enough to be unblocked from your own destiny.
May you have the strength enough to face any obstacle.
May you carry the light you were given by God through even the darkest days.
May you give love to one more person than you thought possible.
May you heal your spirit, strengthen your body and be who you are uniquely meant to be in the world.

Most of all,
May nothing hold you back.

And if you aren't sure you're ready for the big shift or the big energy coming our way, just take this tiny little test.  Just one question, that's all.

Q:  Did you let go of something in 2011 - a relationship, a job, a habit, a toxic situation, a bad friend, a bias, an unneeded possession, a false belief, a denial, a story that no longer defined you, an obsession, a fear?

If you answered YES to any part of this question, then congratulations, you're with us.
If you answered NO, I'm afraid you've landed on the wrong blog.

Happy 2012, ya'll!

It's okay, you're not the only one...

I just received an email from a very close friend who moved to the other side of the world a couple years ago to follow her dreams.  She has.  But it's not enough.  It got me thinking (and writing) about how just about everyone I know is struggling right now.  I don't mean to say that people's lives are falling apart, in fact most "strugglers" I know seem to be doing okay "on paper".  They seem content and in most ways, they are FINE.  But fine just isn't enough when your soul is knocking on your brain and saying, "Hello, it's me, your higher self.  You're here for a purpose.  A big one.  And it's a big undertaking.  You won't fail, but you will have to change a lot of things - let's get going."

Sound familiar?

That's all well and good if you know what that purpose is (or at least think you know - or have an idea) and it's easy enough to live with if what you need to change doesn't cause you too much pain, or financial burden... but I don't think that's the case for many of us.  Maybe most of us.  I think we are all releasing something huge... and in some cases, we are releasing everything.

At first I thought it was mainly happening to my "generation" (let's call that Generation X - fancy label isn't it?) - but even that isn't right.  My mom is changing in ways I never imagined.  Others her age are turning over MASSIVE stones in their own lives.  At first, I thought my former students (who are now 18-24-ish)  didn't face as many of these challenges - I thought they had a different perspective because of their innate open-mindedness - they grew up living and breathing a kind of openness that has existed in their world view because they were born into a world that is connected via the webosphere.  They ARE the children of the global village.  But that assumption wasn't right either.  Many of them find the norms of society to be boring, redundant, pointless and un-engaging.  And they're right. How can we lose them before they've even really begun the "grown-up" journey?

Actually, I don't think we are losing them, I think they are leading us on this journey into Change.   For their generation, it's a default setting.  For us Gen Xers, it's a kind of refusal to conform.  For the once-radical baby boomers it's an overdue rebellion (they who got distracted raising us Gen Xers).  For all of us humans though, it is a very personal and very difficult set of questions, doubts, worries, self-examinations and, in the end, a battle that can only be fought and won with love and honesty.  Love and honesty with Ourselves.  Talk about a tough audience.

I wish I had answers for my girlfriend but I feel as though my only advice to her is to stick with it.  I'll stick with it too. (Mine is no less open-ended, unsettled, raw and inside out than anyone elses.)  Not only will I stick with my own uncertainty, pain, loss and confusion, I will do it right beside her (thank God for the internet).  And apparently I'll do it out in the open for the rest of the world to witness if they care to.  I suppose a big part of the self-honesty in this is admitting that we are not alone in the uncertainties - and then reaching out to ask someone to stand by us while we go through it.

This great collective of individual struggles is part of a greater human struggle to find what is right for all of us.  Collectively.  The Collective Human Population.  After all, we are all the same, aren't we?

What are you waiting for?