Deeper Streams

At the turning of this new year, the only celebration I require is the one that happens on this bench just off the Tiburon rail trail. I know a ball will drop in Times Square later tonight, but all I really need is a bit more time to stare at this view of Mount Tamalpais, to offer gratitude for the year that has been, as well as the one that is to come.

I am struck with wonder at the sights and sounds of a place that feels very new to me in one moment, and in the next, it’s as though I’ve spent forty lifetimes circling this sacred ground.

Time feels less linear these days. My intentions feel less etched in stone. I am breathing more deeply, sleeping more soundly, enjoying a life that grows simpler and deeper with each passing day. There is no magic formula for any of this, other than the words that came to me on this spot. “Take a moment. . . .”

This past year, I have felt the churning of a harsh and bitter world. I’ve listened to the pundits, gasped at the latest outrage, and wrung my anxious hands with the best of them. But when I take a moment, I can see another plane of reality, one that is filled with all the hope, peace, joy, and love of the Advent just past, one that leads me toward the peace of mind and heart that waits patiently for me every day on this bench. Like a Tesla called to its charging station, I sit, I wait . . . I plug in.

If there is any intention I would set for the new year, it is that I take more moments . . . for . . . myself.