Looking A Head

The Roman god Janis is portrayed with two faces one looking back and one looking forward. Of course the month of January is named for Janus, and this image is especially fitting for January first. As we get older so much seems to stay the same, from year to year. Both, the good and the bad of human reality, persisting since the beginning of time. For every famine or flood or earthquake…. There are people willing to fill planes and boats with food and medical supplies, risking their own health, donating precious irretrievable pieces of their lives to help the victims of these natural disasters. For every sinner, somewhere there is a saint quietly, anonymously, changing a small corner of the world for the better. We watch wealth and power being used in self service by some and in service of humanity by others.


This is the Yin and Yang of the universe. Energy ebbing and flowing; positive and negative constantly trying to achieve Tao (said D-ow) or in lay terms balance. Does this mean that every good thing we do in our lives should be balanced by a bad act of equal magnitude? The answer to that is NO… my Granny used to say, “You don’t have to go looking for trouble, it is already looking for you”. There is enough suffering and pain in the world without any human contribution. Mother Nature takes care of that, just ask Haiti. So it is for us to generate as much positive energy as we possibly can.

Looking back on eons of struggle; individual, cultural and global … we turn our gaze forward only to see more of the same. How does anyone not just give up… nothing will ever change, why bother? We can only get our hope for the future, by looking for a BETTER world, not a perfect world. Every single person can make the world better…. Smile at someone, it is contagious. Not a big investment of time but this pebble of positive energy tossed into the pond of life will ripple into the universe helping to move it toward a balance. We must look back only to see how far we have come, never focus on the past, use your knowledge the past, to inform the present and guide the future. Neither, Martin Luther nor Martin Luther King Jr was out to change the world. Like hundreds of others (known and unknown) they just wanted to change their world for the better. If every day, each one of us does one thing to change our world for the better, we will be able to look back without regret and look forward with hope.

Speaking of things staying the same… my wish for you in 2011 is the same as it was in 2010. I wish you all ENOUGH. May you have a year filled with enough joy, enough blessings and enough love.