Happy 2009! Yeah, I know I'm way late, but on the Jewish calendar we've just celebrated Tu b'Shvat, the New Year of Trees, and in a month or so we'll be celebrating Passover, which is another New Year date on the Jewish calendar. (We have a lot of new years on our calendar – maybe so we can renew ourselves several times a year??) Anyway, I'm sure every day is New Year somewhere in the world, so why be parochial about it?And anyway, whatever the date, it's always a good time to set intentions (something I like a lot better than making "resolutions"). And this year, I set only one simple intention – but one that has lots of branches. I decided that in 2009, I would simply dedicate myself to finding the magic in life. I phrased it that way deliberately (i.e. "finding" magic vs. "making" magic), because the magic is always there. We just lose sight of it sometimes. Most of the time, actually. We stumble through our days in a mild fog, attending to our routines and our tasks, and falling into the trap of ordinariness. Yet, if we only looked a little closer – or perhaps a little off to one side instead of straight ahead – we'd see that nothing in this world is ordinary. Magic is inherent in everything, every moment, and all we need to do is notice it. Find it. Like Michelangelo finding the sculpture inherent in the block of marble, we just need to chip away the extraneous material in order to reveal the art at the heart.
Easier said than done, of course. I get so caught up in the daily details and distractions of life that I can't even find my glasses, let alone any magic! But I figure that if I at least say it out loud once in awhile, I'll remember that that was my intention, and perhaps it will burn away a bit of the fog, like the sunrise in the photo above. (Taken from lovely Rivendell retreat on Bowen Island last month.)
