May peace fill all the empty spaces around you
And in you, may contentment answer all your wishes.
May comfort be yours, warm and soft like a sigh.
And may the coming year
show you that every day is really a first day,
a new year.
Let abundance be your constant companion,
so that you have much to share.
May mirth be near you always,
like a lamp shining on the paths you travel.

Happy New Year to All!

A new year is beginning. Days are starting to lengthen. There is still cold weather ahead, but the movement is toward light.

Roots deep in the earth are already preparing for Spring.

It's a time of remembrance and anticipation; new beginnings, new plans, new goals, new directions...as well as thoughts of where we have been.

What will be your direction, your bearing, as the year starts to unfold?

It's an exhilarating time. The world is moving faster than ever. We are networked in a way that would have been considered science fiction only a few years ago. Distance is no longer a boundary for communication or commerce, national boundaries are becoming less and less important.

There is no longer a "Them". There is only "Us". In a very real, and growing, sense we are all intimately, and inextricably connected.

Our society is changing at such a rapid rate that it impossible to say with any certainty what our lives will be like twenty years from now.

Around the new year you start to hear a lot of grand plans. The big projects for the new year. Complex strategies for "Getting it Right this time".

Maybe there is a more direct approach....maybe something simpler is needed in a time where our picture of "The Future" can change in a moment.

The only thing that we can change or improve with any certainty is ourselves.

We all need to be Healthy and Kind.

We all need to help others be Healthy and Kind.

All the world's wisdom traditions teach that loving-kindness is the path to wisdom, peace, and the resolution of suffering.

These isn't something that requires wealth to practice, or position, or facilities. The place to start practicing is right here, and right now.

And if the intent of all of us is to become healthier, and kinder (and wiser)...

I can't see how it could have anything but a good influence on the future that we create in this New Year.

Wiley