Open the door to the new year and like a clean sheet of paper or a desk calendar with crisp corners, feel the slate of viable possibilities. This annual resurgence of potential offers encouragement and enthusiasm. What a gift to be offered: an invitation to renew.
As the new year unfolds, I am reminded of the gratefulness I first felt some half dozen years ago when friends and strangers gathered together to send out their well wishes to others. The tradition to meet on New Year’s Day continued for several years, and I was honored to lead what we came to call the MedMob. Close to a hundred people from all over the city came to our downtown park for the loving kindness meditation. The generosity of spirit, the tenderness of fellowship, and the buoyancy of good will spanned much further than our city park.
Some sat cozily wrapped in blankets, others supported in lawn chairs, while many laid back and looked to the sky. There were children, grandparents, sisters, lawyers, teachers, shop keepers, and so many others whose diversity was connected by a common thread: to spread good will and compassion as a basis for the year ahead.
We used the Metta Bhavana meditation which is often offered as a five part process. We recognized ourselves, loved ones, and strangers as all wishing to possess wellness, happiness, and peace. While time and distance has moved me away from that city park and the wonderful people who spent part of their first day of the new year in mediation, I will always carry the memory of that experience. What’s more, I will continue to use the first day of the new year reciting the Metta Bhavana.
Metta comes from the Sanskrit language and translates to mean loving, friendliness, and holding an attitude of concern and caring. Bhavana is the cultivation of this compassion. To develop a sense of loving kindness at the beginning of the year and to intentionally carry it forward seems not only possible but necessary to ourselves and to the world at large.
As you take a moment to reflect on the year that has passed, send gratitude to all that has been and then turn that crisp page of the new year and begin your intentions. Start with sending loving kindness toward yourself and to those who come to mind instantly and then to those that you suddenly think of and then to those you do not even know personally. First your intentions drop into your heart and then, little by little, a ripple occur. Like the waves in pond, your loving kindness reaches further and further out. I begin another year with this tradition and I send my metta to you:
May you be well
May you be happy
May you be free from suffering
May you know peace
Happy 2018!
4 comments
Nancy says:
January 1, 2018 at 8:25 am (UTC -4 )
John and I continue your wonderful loving kindness practice on New Year’s Day! Happy New Year Anne! Wishing you many adventures in 2018!
Carlos Moreno says:
January 1, 2018 at 10:18 am (UTC -4 )
Namaste, my old friend.
Peace to you and yours this new year.
Carlos
Dan Stein says:
January 8, 2018 at 4:17 pm (UTC -4 )
Thank you, Ann. I enjoy getting these messages.
Jean Moxley says:
January 9, 2018 at 8:56 am (UTC -4 )
I finally read your post and decided I can follow your lead even if it is not the first day of the New Year. Any day is a good day to wish those you know and those you don’t know peace and love. I send it to you as I often do. Thank you for who you are.