Greeting the New Dawn

As I thought about how to close this year (last post of 2024!), the blog that kept coming to mind is one I wrote almost exactly eight years ago. So no, I’m not in Malibu, nor have I flown home from a retreat just yet – that happens on Wednesday – but the message is still relevant. Enjoy.

For the past five days, I’ve lived in a bubble. Members of my yoga and meditation group gathered in Malibu where we sang, danced, meditated, and learned from each other. Gazing at the ocean surrounded by so much beauty and love, it was easy to forget the real world. And then I flew home.

Re-entry startled and unnerved me, raw and sensitive as I am operating on a few hours of sleep. On the drive home, I saw police officers tackling a man on the shoulder of the highway. It wasn’t me being chased, but my heart started pounding nonetheless. On the same ride, I saw hearts painted on the roof of a building. All of these things coexist.

I don’t know what this year holds. I’m guessing it will be a mix of things, just like my ride home. There will be happy things and scary things and sad things and awesome things. For some of us, there will be an unequal mix. But feeling my heart pound watching someone else’s experience, reminds me we are all in this together. We all belong to each other and we are all responsible for each other. We are not as separate as we’d like to believe. We are all connected and what affects one person ripples out.

As we start this new year, I want to quote my spiritual teacher because the message seems relevant. He said:

Just as the advent of the purple dawn is inevitable at the end of the cimmerian darkness of the interlunar night, exactly in the same way I know that a gloriously brilliant chapter will also come after the endless reproach and humiliation of the neglected humanity of today.

Those who love humanity and those who desire the welfare of living beings should be vigorously active from this very moment, after shaking off all lethargy and sloth, so that the most auspicious hour arrives at the earliest.

As we enter this new year, let us all greet the purple dawn. Let us all experience a gloriously brilliant chapter. And let us all work together to bring that “auspicious hour” sooner rather than later because we aspire to live in a beautiful new era.

I dream of a world where we remember we’re all connected. A world where we understand we all belong to each other. A world where we work together to create a beautiful and brilliant life where everyone is treated with love, kindness, and dignity. A world where we rise up to greet the new dawn awaiting us.

Another world is not only possible, it’s probable.