Happy “New” Year

At Kiyomizudera they have chosen “shin” as the kanji most representative of the past year, 2009. Shin means “new”. The kanji “新米” means a new crop of rice, new growth and symbolizes a fresh beginning. It is easy and, perhaps, more comfortable to think of the last year as a year of loss. Over 15 million children died of hunger. Millions of people lost their jobs, hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes, wealth evaporated, hope continues to be severely tested.

Yet in the midst of such suffering, tragedy and loss the seeds of opportunity are sown. Somehow, life perseveres. Somehow, we go on. And, somehow, we still have the capacity for happiness, compassion, joy. Somehow, we continue to work the land and, somehow, the land continues to provide.

Every day, every moment, in every breath, opportunity emerges. This place, our place,this planet, our planet this universe, our universe is impossibly complex, simply abundant. Our minds, our senses are the universe witnessing, wondering, reflecting on itself. What we perceive are our selves, in all of our inter-related, interwoven beauty. We are many. We are one. We are the dance and interplay between.

Opportunity emerges. Faith abides. As we awake to the “new” year, we strive to begin anew. To be better fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, children. We have the opportunity to be so much, even when we have so little – even when we’ve lost so much.

Let us all take a moment as we begin this new year and be silent, present, full. Of life. Of love. Of each other and the abundance the universe provides.

Now, let that moment go: on, and on, and on…

Tags: abundance, Kiyomizudera, Shin

Happy New Year of Change

 

At the end of each year at the Kiyomizudera in Kyoto a kanji (Chinese character) is chosen to represent the old year. For 2008 that character was:

It means “change.” My sense is this is only the beginning. To quote The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre 
The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 

What follows in Yeat’s poem is a vision of violence, bloody anarchy and descending darkness. I believe we have an opportunity here and now. What follows is what I’ve written before.

We can allow change to run it’s capricious and inconsiderate course and react to it, we can respond to it openly and courageously and do the best we can or we can be change, change change, shaping and creating the present and, thus, the future. We do as we do.

How do you do? Happy New Year.

 

Tags: change, Happy New Year, Kiyomizudera, The Second Coming, Yeats, 変