Last month I talked about the way the spirit and meaning of Christmas has become somewhat forgotten and left behind in this age of rampant greed and consumerism.
Thankfully, just as much as the true lessons of Jesus Christ are still as enlightening and ever present in the best of Humanity’s actions, the focus on the new year as we begin another cycle is on hope, promise, rebirth and the chance for change.
Usually these are most represented in the forms of New Year’s resolutions, a deceleration, be it public or private, of a fresh start, a vision born when a large portion of the Western world is locked into the downward cycle of nature as life either falls away or hibernates, ending and beginning an endless circle, as we now climb and slog through Winter’s cold embrace, waiting for Spring to warm us with the expectations of better days.
Trouble is, much like Christmas, some of the more poignant and enlightening aspects of such a time are blurred by modern society and her traditions. Gyms fill to the maximum capacity in January, only to become more vacant by February’s arrival; promises made at midnight become the regrets of the weeks to follow as we find ourselves unworthy of the lofty goals we set up in the afterglow of New Year’s celebrations.
Change, however, is not exclusive to a certain time or place and even the trees that sleep in the colder climates must take the time to wait through the ice and the thaw, which is just a very fancy way of saying don’t limit yourself.
Much like the teachings of Jesus Christ, to love without boundaries, heal without expectation of a return, and also to make bold sacrifices for the good of the world should not be exclusive to the once a year explosion of good will and faith, our chances for inner and outer progression should not be limited by the flawed construct of time.
Almost all of us might recall the first time as a child when we rode our bikes without the training wheels, the fear of falling or injury making for a potent mix with the bike’s own promises of growth, accomplishment and expanded freedom to explore this world around us.
As the nature of Humanity is diverse, all of us took a different path to this goal. Some of us got it right away, peddling down the street with a sense of accomplishment and pride, while others may have fallen, even becoming discouraged that we would never ride that bike properly, it’s aspects of expansion of both mind and traveling distance becoming a horrific sneer, teasing us that its rewards were not for those as uncoordinated or fearful as that scared child we might have been.
Now…if that was you, how many of you can now ride a bike, drive a car, and make our way financially in a world that all too often will watch a person drive off the road, without care that there are no guard rails on the twisting mountain slope that is life?
Did your parents put a time limit on that growth, did they tell you that if you did not ride that bike soon that those training wheels would be the albatross around your neck till the end of your life?
Of course not; the best of our caregivers told us to rise up if we fell. To coin a phrase, to get back on that darn bike and ride every time we felt we failed.
That is because failure is a lie, a word that should not exist because failing and then taking that data gained from experience is how we learn, it is at the heart of the Earthly condition. So as we yet again have survived to tell the tale of another year passed on, make sure you take into account that every setback is actually that fall on the pavement and if we rub our skinned elbows and get back on that bike more determined then ever to conquer it, then nothing will ever stop us, no matter how many times we fall.
Happy New Year to all and good luck riding that bike right down the avenues of love, healing and expansion of self.
