The practice of being present is called into this new year. It is far and away the most difficult thing I have ever needed to learn…but it requires only that you give up thinking that you know anything. The Kingdom of Heaven is all that is at stake here. Only your health, your sanity…your life.

The past few months have been an ongoing near death experience! And I die hard…now life requires that I PARTICIPATE. The word, the concept haunts every meditation, every train of thought.

I don’t profess to comprehend what it means, but I’ve decided to give myself the year to explore it…and every day I seem to stumble deeper into the remote jungle of my mind, through the grueling pain of dis-ease and self doubt.

It feels like I am fighting my way through the overgrown landscape with only naught but a feather…only a virtual machete…and the progress is S L O W goin’…

There is no time to revisit the past… I need to participate, to show up to my day and what is presented…to begin anew this moment..
and this moment…

Beginning to write here is one form of my participation. My life has become too small and isolated, and this calls me out.

Getting my house in order – literally!- is another. As I said recently, I want to immerse myself in GREEN…I want to paint the house green, The Rules of Staging be damned. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Pantone chose Emerald as the Color of the Year. I think I will participate in Emerald.

As silly as this may sound, the idea of participating in life and immersing myself in green makes perfect sense. Green symbolizes life. In many Asian cultures it is believed to bring healing.

This is certainly a time for healing, for myself, and hopefully for my human community. Please join me in Bringing Forth the Emerald this year. You will be hearing from me…