The events of the fall are leaving people frightened about what the new year may bring. When a politician takes power by inciting people’s most vicious prejudices, aided by interferences both foreign and domestic, there is good reason to fear.
Firm in love and in action
But this is a time, instead, to be firm—firm in both love and action. Firm in love—because only unchained hearts, unencumbered by fear and hate, can bring about peaceful change. 
Firm in action—because resisting untruthfulness and injustice requires standing up and becoming engaged.
The Standing Rock Sioux and their allies this year have modeled firmness in both, protecting water through their peaceful presence and disciplined hearts. Their processes are ones that Americans committed to democracy can learn a lot from and emulate in the months ahead.
This is also a time to strengthen spiritual resources and tap in to the support of nature. As the enormous full supermoon settled into the New Mexico earth at dawn in mid-October, 
it reminded me as usual of the limited power of human beings. No human being can change the moon’s orbit. None are powerful enough to set the pathway of Laniakea, the super cluster of galaxies to which we belong, as it hurtles through space.
The regenerative power of nature is untouchable.
Because of nature’s power to bring something new into being, change happens. Organisms evolve by seizing unforeseen openings and experimenting. They try something new, over and over again. And every change provides yet more opportunities for the new to come into being.
To be aligned with nature is to be ready to seize every opportunity to bring something new into being.
Thomas Berry wrote in The Great Work,
The present is not a time for desperation but for hopeful activity.
Wishing you an unfettered heart and hopeful activity in the New Year.
These are good reminders, Priscilla. I’m comforted by idea that the world is changing constantly but also that we are part of a super-galaxy—a very small part. I believe we are going to need all the love and courage we can find in the next few years. More power to us.
More power to us, indeed. Thanks, Kathy.
Thanks Priscilla – great thoughts for heading into the new year. See you out on the forest trails!
Thanks, Michael, for dropping by! Yes, the forest trails are my daily source of sanity. Maybe you’ve heard of “forest bathing,” now becoming a cornerstone of preventive health care in Japanese medicine. The best medicine is nature!
Dear Priscilla. Thank you for this. If we are to be men and women at the edge of something steep we need UPLIFT to take flight. I deeply appreciate your uplifting draft so we can soar like eagles or at least ravens. May we be BOLD and courageous even as we are creative in response to what comes. There will come playfulness somehow. I don’t pretend to know how as yet. But I’m curious.
Hi, Kate, thanks for dropping by! We definitely need to stay alert and poised for action. But action can mean dancing too! Like Emma Goldman’s famous line, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” The deepest changes come through joyful hearts. Thanks for yours!