New Year Reflections

Jan 2, 2014

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The new year is a time for reflections and resolutions. What do we actually know? We know that the biological fabric of life on earth is unraveling. We know that we are so profoundly altering the conditions of life that no corner of the earth is untouched. We know that wealth and power are increasingly concentrated in a small cluster of corporations and in about 1% of the world’s population. We know that the technological web that seemed so promising has also begun to reveal its dark side — the pervasive invasion of our privacy and the uses of the web for acts of theft and acts of war.

Yet in the midst of all this destruction, we know that there is hope. We know that all over the world, people come together to make a difference. Some do it through anonymous acts of random kindness. Others come together to feed those who are hungry, find shelter for those who are homeless, nurse those who are sick, and help in a thousand other ways. [read more]

We also know that each of us has a choice about how to live in these times. Do we choose cynicism and despair? Or do we choose to do what we can, wherever we find ourselves. Do we close down — or do we live generous and generative lives?  The scale is not what matters. What matters to the heart is that we choose to give.

If those are a few of the things we know, what resolutions will we make for the new year? I always have a number that have to do with eating better, getting more exercise, extending my meditations — that sort of thing. But what are our resolutions about giving from the heart? Some of those resolutions may be very personal — in a marriage, with a child, with a close friend. Others may reach out beyond our close circle to ways of giving that change things for people we do not know — and people who may never know us.

I have no answer for you. I just pose the question. Perhaps you and I should make a few resolutions to give from the heart more in the new year. We welcome your thoughts.

Michael

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