Positive New Year - Oh Yeah!

Have you read the news laterly?

There's not a lot of goodness going on. Our humanity is on the brink of becoming terminal as world and economic tensions rise. To further fuel human anxiety, Mother Earth is starting to wobble as the melting ice caps have flooded pockets of the planet in unequal measures. Christmas cheer and "Goodwill and Peace on Earth" was blown to smithereens on Christmas Day started by Hamas and Israel. (Why did they have to ruin our holiday?) A local 69 year old man was attacked and beaten with a baseball bat in his church's parking lot while headed to Christmas Eve mass - at least they caught the perpetrator today. And, 5 members of one family died in a house fire in DC because the 1940's home's wall structure enabled fire to tunnel through the walls unabated - a problem rectified in subsequent constructure code improvements. Wall street's end-of-year losses were unfathomably huge, so much paper wealth was lost that it makes your eyes cross.

So, now it's another year. What are we going to do with it? More of the same or by some miracle, do better? How are you feeling at this moment? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Or perhaps, you are a realist.

It really doesn't matter. None of us has a crystal ball. We can only do our best, day by day. I believe if we all took this position and thought less about how to get power, things, and people and more about taking it slow and easy, life would improve.

In 2009 I plan to do just this - slow and easy, each day at a time, making the most of the things within my sphere of control. And, when you think about it, there are many things within arm's reach that we affect... our family, coworkers, neighbors, strangers, classmates, parishioners, service providers, sales associates, bank tellers, cab drivers, etc. I have a pretty wide network and I pledge to do my best to make a positive and lasting impact on those with whom I have contact. After all, it's the people in our lives - closely related or mere associates - who in turn can pass on that positive energy to others within their network. And so it spreads. Good will and positive energy.

Go out and spread your positive energy. It's catching!

Let's make this truly a happy new year.