Looking Back! Looking Forward!

The year 2011 is just about finished. This means the year 2012 is not far off. I always like being in those places where I can be at two separate emotions at the same time. Like holding the TV remote and clicking back and forth between two different channels. Looking back and looking forward is such a place. And even though all I can do is live in the now, I can learn so much by straddling the past and the present.

2011 was a year of extremes; extreme weather, extreme emotions, extreme decisions, extreme living, and extreme death.  Much was played out on the 24 hour news channels. Vivid images where etched in my mind forever. Other extremes being personal were played out in my very own existence, caressed, made understanding of, and used as knowledge to do just a bit better the next time. This is not to suggest such extremes were even remotely negative. In fact for a “glass half full” kind of guy, I tend to look for, see, and embrace the good things, the positives found in people and events.

It is in accepting the peace of positive in daily life which so often sustains me.  As death became the center of much as 2011 has begun to wane, I have had the genuine opportunity to reflect upon, to share with others, and allow myself to be bathed in the knowing of how valuable life and relationships are. As I have had to sort, box up, and even throw away “things”, what I have discovered more and more about me is that these “things” mean very little to me. What I have often felt on a surface level, but have experienced on an even deeper, more personal level in 2011 is the peace, love, and gratitude not of “things”, but of “relationships”.  In the end, it is the deep “relationships” I draw upon in remembrance and in the now, not of an item or article of materialism.

In a short time it will be 2012. Much excitement goes with the start of a new year. I guess this O.K., but I find myself each year saying more and more, “So what’s the big deal”? It’s not that I do not enjoy a good party. In fact that in itself is the issue. For me each day is a New Year, a New Beginning, a reason to party, to celebrate!

So, for the sake of ushering 2012, what is it I want to do? Well, whether I realize it or not, like each and every day, 2012 will be a time of change, growth, highs and lows. So in the end I want to celebrate and appreciate each moment of each day. Like a Christmas gift under the tree, I want to unwrap each day one fold at a time savoring every new encounter with the enthusiasm and mystery of my youth.

The bridge between 2011 and 2012 has been filled with family. The really cool thing about my family is as we age, we enjoy more and more just sitting back and listening to the same old stories over and over again. And like those great fish stories of lore, we too hold the power and grace to embellish as needed to add that needed spice at that perfect time. There is also something even more mesmerizing to these moments. In addition to laughter, and even at times the fighting back of a tear, when there is that crashing hush, when everyone is just taking it all in, it is the hugs and the embraces that end that round of story telling that makes living and the telling about living all worthwhile.

Peace and Love to everyone in 2012! If we practice these two just a little bit more, I truly believe each of us can make this amazing world just a little bit better!