Skip to main content

New Years Eve 2008

I felt it important to add one last blog for 2008. I’ve been in a kind of “holidaze” recently and just haven’t felt compelled to write. I can hear some of my beloveds groaning at that last comment. I know that I’ve been MIA but that’s OK. I still have plenty to share and more to say. Will you stay tuned in 09? I hope so.

Today however is the last day of 08. Another wonderful year has come and gone. Filled with so much living, a little procrastination, and a whole lot of love. It was, as they all are really, a fine year. I made every attempt to end this year on a high note. So that meant getting up at 5am, assembling my mountain bike gear, loading the bike in the truck and heading off to a 7am client meeting. As soon as I was finished with the meeting I dialed my buddy and brother in arms Jimmy and told him I was on my way to the woods. He and Moon (the man) and Takoda (the dog) met me there and we headed out just as the snow started falling. It was cold and silent except for the crunching of our tires in the leftover snow from the last storm. What a sweet ride we had. Up and down, crossing streams and hopping logs. The snow made the roots and rocks slicker than usual which forced me to relax and let the bike slide finding its own way. Sometimes the more you fight the more you fall and today I let the elements determine my line – and stayed upright as a result. Sometimes in Life it’s when we relinquish the need to force things and control situations that we make a really simple discovery. The trail becomes one continuous thread of ups and downs, obstacles and challenges, and yet we stay calm and focused – totally relaxed and in the flow.

Today in the woods was one of those days. We paused in an old growth Hemlock forest to catch our breaths and appreciate the quietude. The last day of another year that for so many has been filled with tremendous stress and worry. As I exhaled watching my breath in the form of vapor disappear into the snowy sky I set loose a heartfelt wish:

That this coming year be filled with such an abundance of all good things for all living beings. May their lives be filled with joy and peace. May every and all their wishes come true starting today. And as I let this intent go I felt all those good wishes manifest inside myself – coming right back to me. Thank you is all I can say right now.

Thank you and blessings for the New Year.

J

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Losing His Hero

Today in my morning meditation I was strongly feeling my middle brother David who passed away almost two months ago on November 20, 2023. He was 71 years old. A bit of preface here: He also was my abuser growing up (to clarify: emotional and physical, not sexual) and although I had reconciled those experiences through my own inner trauma work we never spoke directly about that time in our lives. We were never very close in our young adulthood although he was very generous when I moved to Encinitas CA to participate in don Miguel Ruiz’s Dreaming School in 2002. He and his wife Carol lived two towns over in Solana Beach. We interacted quite a bit sharing meals and dog walks on the beach and David took a real interest in my son Nick who was 12 at the time. It wasn’t until 20 years later that I became fully aware to the degree of harm I experienced at the hands of my brother while involved in some somatic therapy around my CPTSD diagnosis. I was becoming repeatedly trigg

Waking Up with the What Ifs

Apparently last night I had been dreaming of a life I left behind 11 years ago.  Snippets of memory like peering through a gauzy veil, and scenes vaguely reminiscent of my life as a builder in a small coastal town north of Boston. I woke up with the What Ifs. You know how dreams are: like your eyes can’t completely focus, situations that are seemingly disconnected but maybe not, faces you know but can’t place, yet the feeling in the dream is quite real. I was back in Old Town and trying to figure out why the house I was in was unfinished. There was a meeting to be had there, but it was just me. I walked down a cobbled street to what I figured to be the office of the architect and it was a room of all glass and about 10 people seated around a glass table. I tried to get the attention of the man who was the architect on this particular job without disrupting the meeting. He looked like a friend who wasn’t an architect but a realtor and a neighbor.  I wondered how he switched care

Mindset Like a Dog

This morning after getting the kids off to school I decided to take my dogs for a longer than usual hike on our local mountain. I took a couple big swigs of water, layered up, added hat and gloves, and headed out the gate. The dogs knew what was up and bounced around me, excited and eager for whatever lay ahead. Yet every time they see me putting on my boots it’s like they have never been walked before. Their excitement is fresh. Every day. How is it that they have no idea how long or short I am going to walk them, yet they are always down to walk? I never have to prod them out of their lethargy.  Rain, snow, or sun, they are ready.  Anytime. This got me to wondering what if I adopted this dog mindset? What exactly would that feel like? ******* Recently I’ve felt flat. Not super inspired.  I’m attempting to increase my client base as a Mindset Coach and honestly renovating a 200-year-old house like in my former life feels markedly easier than landing new clients.   It’s the