Happy 2018 is the traditional welcome to a new year. I hope all your wishes and dreams come true.
I experienced a New Year of an entirely different kind last night at Mickey Singer‘s Temple of the Universe. 
Our focus was on all that we were conscious of inside us that wasn’t working in our lives, which we then cast on pieces of paper into a wonderful, giant bonfire, supported by chanting from the whole group. We also threw pinches of millet seed into the fire along with the chants, since seed, once burned, can never take root again. It’s a symbolic process of course, about which I feel pretty good this first morning of this new 2018 year.
I was intrigued how Mickey pointed out the transformation of dark, cold logs piled up in the fire pit in the late, bleak afternoon, to this roaring orange light pouring out dancing images and very welcome warmth. The transformation of our own dark places to beings of brilliant light, touching, inspiring and warming everything within our radius, is equally as possible.
This is the journey Life Itself has bestowed upon us. By becoming aware of the tangled web of darkness and confusion within, then becoming aware of the magnificence of Life Itself, glimpse by treasured glimpse, we journey towards the brilliance of being our own inner fires, albeit step by hiccoughing step.
Today I feel clearly aware of this journey – I know there is darkness/confusion still within me that cries out for release from those heavy, worn out logs of brain tracks. I have experienced enough glimpses of being in alignment with pure Presence to know that is most definitely the consciousness from which I want to be living my life. I have also experienced more than enough struggle to release that confused thinking, and I know that sometimes it takes a lot more of me than I have been willing to give.
So my commitment to 2018 and my wish for everyone is to find the courage, the strength and the motivation to freely release the confused thinking in our beings as it arises, moment by moment, and so allow the light that we each are to shine more brilliantly than ever.
Here’s to dancing with Life Itself in the light of love.