LOVE: to override logic and linear thinking and go to the irrational Heart.
Another year. Another line etched on our faces. Another year of fighting the good fight. It seems this year has been a grind, not that there haven’t been significant moments and individual attempts to bring light to some darkened corners of our world. However, it has taken a push, it has taken Faith; it has taken righting ourselves when the easier move is to default to an acerbic rant. We are challenged by what we can control, knowing where to bear down and where to ease up seems to matter.
I find myself living, creating with heartbreak. Could be my age, could be the times, could be evolutionary. I like the idea that my heart is breaking open. That fighting for my point of view is not an indication of my manhood or my philosophical sensibility, but rather an indication of some profound insecurity. I look back on each year and see what an asshole I was last year. I think that’s a good thing. Not the self-flagellation but the self-realization. The inventory and retrospective of all the unwanted behaviors that were too opaque to see without the benefit of a rear-view mirror. It’s good to take a pause, to take a breath, to see where you have been muscling through and where your body and soul have taken a toll.
Most of us do an accounting of what our last year yielded, the good and the bad and unresolved. And so it is, we find ourselves back here a year later assessing how it all went. We all use different metrics to measure the success of our last year. Some look at their income, some look at their families and their children’s well-being, some at personal development and physical changes. We all use different criteria to determine what was. All and more are valid assessments. However, maybe there’s a more transformational lens that qualifies.
Did I make things better for others? Was I more transparent about my shortcomings? Was I heroic in getting up again and again and resetting to the best part of myself? We can be hard on ourselves, and sometimes that’s necessary, but mostly you never learn anything from punitive behavior.
There has been a good deal of global heartbreak. There’s a substantial amount of anxiety about what is coming, AI, and the concern about singularity. There’s the uncertainty of the ever-moving tectonic plates of Earth.
The answer lies in the human connection, being connected, knowing you matter.
Really, like the Beatles said,
All you need is Love.
I wish for you a gentle time, a good laugh and a good cry.
Love,
BC