Musings from the Mat
 

Happy New Year 2012 !

This photo arrived in my inbox this week – I just had to share it!

As I sit down to write something for the end of 2011 and the start of 2012, this picture keeps coming to mind. Out with the old, in with the new.

But for me, this photo also captures something even more powerful. If you’ve ever tried to take a picture and you wanted to get it just right, you know it isn’t easy. It takes work: an idea, a plan, skill, time, and lots of patience.

With this photo, that must be especially true. I imagine that the photographer tried many times to get the perfect shot. And right at the moment when the shutter clicked, things may not have gone quite according to plan. Maybe too much sand was washed away — oops, there goes all of “2011,” a wee bit too soon: redraw, reshoot. Maybe there was a footprint nobody noticed until just then — uh oh, that’s a do-over. Maybe droplets from the ocean splashed across the lens — quick, wipe it off, try again.

And that’s what I wanted to share, this idea that life is like that. We pause at that always-magical moment, as one year slips away and another begins, and we create our dreams and resolutions. Then, life comes along, and things don’t go quite according to plan. We have to regroup, reenvision, recreate our dreams, and reinvent ourselves, over and over again.

And just like in this photo, where the photographer worked to get it right, so can we. We adapt to life’s ups and downs, we tweak our vision, we reinspire ourselves, and we do our inner work, so that we can, hopefully, get it right.

Tonight at midnight, as 2011 is washed away and 2012 arrives, fresh and new, I will take some mindful moments to be grateful for all the things that went right in 2011, and even for some that didn’t but taught me valuable lessons along the way; for family and friends, for amazing students, for wonderful, generous teachers, for skilled healers, for the people who inspired me, for all the kindnesses that came my way. I will look ahead with hope and delight, to a new year and all the possibilities it holds.

And I’ll know that it won’t just happen in one shot; it’ll take work to manifest an awesome year. I’m OK with that. It’s worth it. I’m ready! 

Happy New Year 2012 !
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