Happy New Year!!

My grandmother used to say that on New Years Day one should do a bit of everything one would be doing for the rest of the year. Well, I hardly will do that. I want to sit at my computer and think of new directions. My idea of New Years day is that it is an excellent day to set intentions.

I learned an interesting thing about the numerology of this year. I am not sure where I first heard this. Add the digits in the year:

2 + 0 + 0 + 7 = 9

2 + 0 + 0 + 8 = 10 = 1

In the numerology that I am using one always adds digits together then if the sum is not a single digit, add those digits together. Keep repeating this until you have a single digit. I went back and played with adding the digits of years together to look at this progression:

1 + 9 + 9 + 8 = 27 = 9

1 + 9 + 9 + 9 = 28 = 10 = 1

2 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 2

It seems that adding the digits of years together gives us cycles of nine with no zero year. So, we go from a 9 year (2007) back to a 1 year (2008).

I thought about 1999, it was the year I left my x-husband at the beginning of the year. I was very much in touch with the idea of new beginnings. 1999 was the last 1 year. Now we are moving back to the beginning of a cycle with another 1 year!

What does this mean? Change, new beginnings? The beginning of a new cycle?

I certainly hope so. I want to see a more positive world emerge from all of the negativity that seems to be gripping it right now. Of course, one person has a rather limited sphere of influence, some more than others, but we all have some and we never really know how far it extends. We can only control the thoughts of our own minds which direct the energy that flows through that sphere of influence. We can choose to reflect negative energy (fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, pettiness) or positive (love, helpfulness, enthusiasm, passion in all of its many forms).

Last night, slightly under the influence, I decided on my New Years Resolution / intention for 2008:

I will make the effort to be enthusiastic.

I have been exposed to “new age” thinking for over twenty years. When I watched the movie The Secret all of the ideas it presented were already familiar to me. Nevertheless, I allowed myself to feel resistance.

For many years, I have been involved in a dialog with myself and others about the use of the principles of mind action. I truly believe that what we create in our thoughts manifests in our world. But then the questions come: What about people who are in unjust situations, what about pain, handicap, exploitation? What if one finds oneself in a reality in which one is severely limited. Do we create that?

After having this dialog in many forms I will say that it leads nowhere useful.

I have allowed myself to feel resentment against those that can so easily seem to manifest a beautiful life. Yet, I have become lazy about practicing the principles I know to be true. I have become lazy about meditation, reading, study, some kind of practice that would keep me plugged into the reality that I really want to be in. Arguments about whether we create our reality based on some horrific condition are only delaying tactics.

Whatever we find in our world we must work with, we really don’t have a choice.

I have also been very resistant to the work of Byron Katie (author of Loving What Is and A Thousand Names of Joy). She speaks strongly of loving the reality in which we find ourselves. A couple of weeks ago I listened to the audio book with Katie reading A Thousand Names of Joy. It was painful for me to listen to. I totally agree with her but was spending a great deal of my own life force resisting my own reality.

So, in this new year I want to at least try to address this tendency. What is, is, there is not much I can do about that. I can visualize a more desirable future and in doing so help to bring it about.

I am certain that many folks have been plugging away for a very long time, working in small and large ways to make their personal world a little better. I think in this new 1 year, and the new cycle it is bringing, it may be easier to do this. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, I still believe that we are collectively bringing about a better world.

Shine On

Today I made this necklace of swarovski crystal to symbolize the shiny new year. I am continuing my love affair with crystals and I am convinced that it is time to let our intentions shine.