“Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’….”
Alfred Tennyson
My friend Peg posted that on FaceBook this morning and I found it an apt aphorism as we begin this new year.
It’s a handy tool, this made up concept of time and of its beginnings and endings. We think we have a new year. A new month. A new week. A new day. In reality, I think we swim in an eternal now and if quantum physicists are to be believed time truly is made up to help us organize things.
But on New Years day I’d prefer to think that each day IS a new beginning. That we DO get the chance to begin again (and again, and again and again….).
Dreams without an action plan are indulgences.
But action without purpose, meaning and direction is simply activity.
Really, we need both.
So much is outside our span of control – most of life, really. So we can plan our intents, our methodologies. We can set goals and keep our eyes towards them. But if we are unable to surf the vast tide of chaos – life – we’re likely to be constantly jarred. Riding the El on old tracks with a full trainload at rush hour – this bumpy business of life.
That balance between focus and spontaneity – between “where I’m going” and “be here now” – it all gets encapsulated in this holy holi-day. Maybe you are like me – you at least write down some hopes, plans and dreams for the year to come. And then – because it is a day out of ordinary time (a holi-day) you relax into the moment. Laugh with friends. Maybe go visiting. Watch football. Eat and drink in ways you wouldn’t on “just a Tuesday”.
I’m reading a book on quantum physics now – “The Intention Experiment” by Lynne McTaggert. Those physicists seem to be proving scientifically what my mother always said “you become what you think about.” Our thoughts DO create physical reality.
So what shall we create in 2013, friends? What are YOUR intentions – for your own dear self? And for our great big beautiful world?
As always, I really want to know!
Great the New Year with open arms!
I intend to get back to a regular pattern of connecting with the universe. I intend to exercise more and I intend to love up my family.
From afar, I would say you are well on the way, Tammy!