Once Again Around the Sun (Happy New Year 2018)

Are you ready for the next leg of the journey? The train’s going to be leaving soon. The same direction – with different stops along the way. New faces getting on; familiar faces getting off.

That’s what this is, this new year coming. Another ending, another beginning. It’s the same, and it’s different. It’s a circle; whether we realize it or not, we end up back where we started.

The idea of celebrating the New Year is the same as celebrating a birthday, with the New Year being the collective birthday and all of us celebrating it together. The Earth is in a certain position (the beginning) and circles around the sun until it returns to that same position (the end).

The beginning and the end are the same. Every end is a beginning, and every beginning an end. Proof that life is all about the journey. We all do know this; the concept pops ups in movies and song all the time – but do we really understand it? More to the point: do we really believe it?

Our lives are our creation. Everything we think, say and do creates a ripple outward, and those thoughts, words and deeds are expressed out of our own choice. Events that we say ‘happened’ to us are natural occurrences of thought, both our own personally and the collective. In truth, what ‘happens’ to us is actually our reactions and responses to natural events and circumstances – we determine what ‘happens’ to us by our definitions of what anything means to us. Then, we let those reactions define who we are.

It is only on New Year’s Eve (or the personal birthday) that we think about all the choices we make or have made. We make resolutions – basically, future choices – for ourselves based on what we’ve already done or not done, experienced or not experienced. Doesn’t this show us that deep down inside we actually realize how much of our experience here is choice? Yet, so few of us are willing to accept that and would rather put the responsibility of our lives onto someone or something else, choosing to be the victim. Yes, being a victim is a choice – you choose to be the victim by your definition of yourself after certain events and circumstances. While that may serve you in absolving yourself from your own blame, it gives away your own control of anything. You are only powerless if you believe you are.

Choose to believe in your own power. Remember, it really does all come down to you because no matter where you are or who you are with, at the end of the day – of the journey – it is just you.  

Start with your resolutions; instead of beginning them with “I will …” try “I am …” If you were to state your intentions out loud both ways you can hear and feel the difference that even the wording makes. If you fall off the proverbial wagon, state your intentions again – and then again until it becomes second nature (however, what you think of as second nature is actually your first nature, rediscovered).  

Be aware of the new in the New Year – you have to, if you want to have any success with the resolutions you make. Life is never this or that; it’s this and that. Endings are beginnings. Events you label negative always have a positive aspect and vice versa. Choose your definitions of life and of who you are in it, because you know you will never see the light of the candle in the sun.

A circle never ends; neither does the journey. Life is eternal; we keep going and only stop to change outfits, leaving hand-me-downs for those we’ve sat with on the train.

Remember what Dorothy realized: “if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with!” You already have everything you need; you already ARE everything you need.

Choose to have a happy New Year – because it already is.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a train to catch.

Maybe we’ll sit together for a bit.