We Are Not Alone!!! Really!!!

In this country many of us celebrate the New Year on January 1st. As part of our shared interconnectedness it is important to me to acknowledge that many other countries and religious traditions around the world have recently celebrated their New Year too. For me, the New Year is a time to celebrate that each day is a New Year; a new beginning!!! The New Year is a time, and a spirit, in which we can celebrate family, the blessings in our lives, freedom, survival, and whatever else we are grateful for in our lives. Amidst this celebratory exterior lies the stark paradox of the abysmal loneliness and lack that we, as people, can experience even in the midst of family, friends, and our six billion neighbors and fellow humans. It is a time when feelings of isolation intensify. It is a time when suicide rates soar!

It is in this context that our interconnectedness is so important to me. I feel that a large part of embracing our true interconnectedness also involves looking squarely into the eyes and hearts of our loneliness, our vulnerability, our pain. To say the very least this can be difficult to do when raised in any culture that embraces independence and strength; both of which are defined as “I can do it myself” and “I feel no pain”. Somewhere in our move toward emotional health and belonging we began to understand that these values, if taken to heart, translated to “I don't see or relate to myself so I certainly don't see or relate to you!” When carried to the extreme we see the global market as it is today where profit at any cost is the underlying value of transnational companies and the people who are owned by them! Yes, that is what I meant to say!

In my opinion, connecting with our universal family involves being committed to a spirit of thanksgiving and magnanimity that embraces deeply loving ourselves, deeply acknowledging our power and, therefore, our ability to impact ourselves and each other. None of this is easy. How often can we not even agree in our own family about what is the right way, what is the right religion, what is the right course of action? To deeply care we must deeply listen. To deeply listen we must be deeply committed to the reality that we will run headlong into our own blindspots and unresolved pain and terror, and we will pause and breathe deeply and give thanks for the awareness that will heal us and bring us together. In this process we will open to the even larger reality that family is defined beyond bloodlines. Family is defined by a reality that embodies a deep caring for life and all that life involves. Family involves greeting all the people I know, and don't know, as mirrors of who I am in each moment, and honoring this experience as a sacred encounter. That kind of openness moves us beyond boundaries of judgment, personality, appearance, nationality, or religion to the expansiveness that mirrors the Love that has no opposite. There is no fear, no hatred, no greed, no belief in scarcity. Each thought, each action embodying this consciousness makes this possibility a living reality. By what I see happening in the world today I see us moving closer and closer to embracing this magnanimity and thanksgiving as a worldwide value. I truly give thanks for this spirit of magnanimity and for all the steps along the way. I truly give thanks for a new year each day; for our interconnectedness each moment! We truly are not alone!!! 

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