To 2024

To 2024

Dear 2024,
Hello to you.  We are here to welcome you in.  In truth, You are a tad scary to some of us, in some specific arenas.  Politics, for example.  World peace, for another.  Climate and planet stability, to name yet another.  

Wait.  Stop right there.  Let’s remember perspective here, Aruni.

Dear 2024,
You hold things unknown, moments unlived, decisions unmade, circumstances un-formed, words unspoken.  Yet we do have much evidence-based data that tells us, You, 2024, will always unfold.  You will always unfold, and we will always find our way.

Eventually and inevitably.

We will find our way.

Eventually and inevitably.

And no matter what happens, we will continue to practice.  And we will learn and grow.  Because that’s who we are, that’s what we do.  We know that You, this new 2024, You, Reality, You are our teacher.  You bring to us what we need to learn.  You offer us doors to walk through that perhaps we alone might not choose.  

We know you are in charge.  We, of course, are not.

Yet we have choices to make and directions in which to lean.

Choices!  

Here are our choices for 2024:

Courage and strength.
We choose courage and strength.

No matter what happens, 
May we find
Deep within ourselves
Courage and strength.

And if not within ourselves,
May we find it
Within each other.

We choose rest.

We choose
To relax.
To stop
Doing
So
Much
Damn
Stuff.

We choose to remember
The power of stopping.

And when we can’t remember,
When we just need to
Keep going
And going
And
Going,

We choose to be kind
And gentle 
And easy
With ourselves.

And keep practicing.

We choose to keep practicing.

Courage and strength.
Relaxation
And
Rest.

Kindness
And
Gentleness.

And practice.

These are our choices for 2024.
~~~

For our hearts on this week of endings, of new beginnings, this old year leaving, this new year arriving, here is Iz, Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole.  Native Hawaiian musician and songwriter, Iz achieved success and popularity outside of both within and outside Hawaii. As a staunch advocate of Hawaiian rights, Iz surely has been the face of Hawaiian music.

Toward the end of this video, we see Iz’s ashes being returned to the sea.  This melody of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and It’s a Wonderful World evokes both the poignancy of living and the sanctity of dying.

Iz offers us a perfect ending to 2023, and a most right beginning to 2024.

Please pass this on to your communities. 
With gratitude, Aruni