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2021: Face It Head On

2020 has been a year of unimaginable change. Overnight our global reality was turned on its ear. Think of it, no one on this planet has been untouched by the changes this year. And as we all know, much of it has not been pretty.

Facing a new year is daunting when we feel SO let down by the year 2020. How many will ring in 2021 with joyous expectation, with a feeling that they are empowered to take on fresh challenges and build something new? The narrative in the news is constantly one of illness, fear, and disempowerment. We are being told we are weak. No, we are not! We are only we weak if we believe it to be so.

2020 presented us with scenarios that greatly challenge our mental comfort level. Question is, in 2021 will we rise to the occasion and proactively deal with the challenges that have been thrust upon us? Or, will we complacently sit back and wait for change to “happen to us”?

There is a New Year’s cartoon circulating right now. Picture a crowd of people in a hallway, peering nervously around the corner and down the next hall at a door signed 2021. The door is slightly ajar, and the leader is prodding the door open with a long pole to see what’s behind it before anyone proceeds.

No, no, no! Have we allowed 2020 to crush our spirits so badly that we hang back in fear? There is nothing behind that mysterious door that can defeat us, unless we let it be so. Let us walk through the door courageously, confidently, resolutely. With this attitude, we can create the change we want in the world and live our lives accordingly. Let us make a pledge to ourselves for 2021, to live life consciously, creatively, and intentionally towards that goal.

For more on confronting change, here’s an inspiring article from Lifehack about why it’s actually good for us:
How the chaos in your life builds character

Inspirational Quotes:

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” ~ Helen Keller

“When we least expect it, life sets us a challenge to test our courage and willingness to change; at such a moment, there is no point in pretending that nothing has happened or in saying that we are not yet ready. The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.” ~ Paulo Coelho

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Golden Moments

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“Time is the school in which we learn, Time is the fire in which we burn.” are the profound last lines of the poem, Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day, by Delmore Schwartz. It’s a beautiful philosophical contemplation of the passage of time, with a particularly great wrap-up last stanza.

The seconds, minutes, hours tick away relentlessly. Our lives are busy, and inundated with many distractions and responsibilities. Lately I’m looking at my age and thinking, “Wow! It’s going faster than I ever imagined at age 18.”

Realistically, we don’t have time to sit around and endlessly ponder about the value of time and our lives. But, it’s useful to carve out a little time (from time to time) for such introspection. Because your life IS precious, and the clock IS ticking. Ask yourself in this moment, are you spending it the way you would really like to?

The new year 2021 will soon be upon us. In retrospect, too many precious moments fell through the cracks in the turmoil of 2020, never to be lived. It is a good time now to think about how we will spend 2021. Because indeed, these are our lives, and it is OUR time.

It is crucially important (now more than ever) to have vision and intention for our lives. Otherwise, we will just end up with someone else’s idea of how life should be.

Photo courtesy Amit Pal and John, Pexels

Joy! (and more)

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Christmas close approaches, and with it a myriad of memories, feelings, and images. 2020 has magnified the importance of the people in our lives, and also our connection to our greater humanity. I started thinking yesterday of words that are most evocative of Christmas for me. The word that tops my list is: JOY

There is definitely a heightened feeling of love and goodwill around me at this time of year. This feeling gives me great joy as people take a little rest from the regular routines, worries, and burdens of every day life. I love to see joy expressed on the faces of people around me.

I think of joy is a life keyword, an evaluator of the world around me. I’m feeling that if our world was better balanced and society fairer, we’d be seeing a lot more joy on an every day basis. This is something for all of us to contemplate for the new year 2021 just ahead. How will we claim and live our joy? And not just our joy, but all of the positive aspects of life that we deserve. These are, after all, our lives. They are precious and they come around only once.

I realize that many people reading this do not celebrate Christmas. But in your own culture, you have celebrations that are sacred, important, beautiful. My partner and I lived in Thailand for some years, and I loved getting to know and taking part in the important traditions there. Loy Krathong (Festival of Light) was my favorite.

So, take a moment to think of your own culture’s sacred traditions and celebrations. What one word is evocative of how you feel as you share those celebrations with family and friends? If you would like to share in the comments, I would love to hear from you.

I send you best wishes for all the joy and blessing your hearts can hold (and more) in 2021.

Be the Light

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The battle between the dark and the light: It’s classic. Some of the greatest stories and movies are based on it. There has always been darkness and light in our world, and in fact both sides exist within ourselves. If it didn’t, our souls would have moved on to “bigger and better” things.

Is it my imagination though, that things are feeling just a tad weighted to the dark side at the moment? When I feel discouraged about it, I take solace in this: In every cycle of this classic battle throughout the ages, when a crisis of the dark occurs, humanity digs down deep to find the best parts of itself. Dark collapses and light emerges.

So, let’s keep on keeping on. Every candle makes a difference. That would be you and I, and every other person on the side of the light.

Be the light.

Inspirational Quotes:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” ~ St. Francis Of Assisi

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ Plato

“Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone’s life. Be the light that helps others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance.” ~ Roy T. Bennett

“There’s always going to be bad stuff out there. But here’s the amazing thing — light trumps darkness, every time. You stick a candle into the dark, but you can’t stick the dark into the light.” ~ Jodi Picoult

Susan L Hart / Author