Fear and Trust Facing the Year Ahead

At the boundary between 2021 and 2022, looking out over the future landscape of the coming year,

I see conflict, violence and suffering growing and spreading in the world,

And I also see, at the heart of the dissolution, a tremendous light getting brighter and brighter, brilliant and beautiful.

Sharing with a dear friend and mentor about my relationship with Fear and Doubt, he asks,

“What do you trust?”

The question catches me by surprise, opens me, penetrates deeply.

The answer that comes: I trust my growing ability to connect with the oneness of it all through awareness and language,

And with a loving benevolence and power in ourselves and life’s unfolding we can tap into,

However difficult or horrific the circumstances to come,

A peace “amidst the crash of breaking worlds,” as a beloved Indian yogi teacher would say.

I’m stunned to feel the depths of this Trust inside.

The Fear softens and relaxes.

A second answer comes later,

I can trust Reality, what is and what happens, the way things are (including the way I am!).

I can trust this because it is the present expression of the Whole, the One — Life, Earth, Universe — in perpetual becoming,

The culmination at this point of 14 billion years of evolution.

I realize I can trust this too, even as we witness deterioration and transformation of social, political, and eco systems on our planet.

Wishing you love, connection, and peace “that passeth all understanding” in this New Year,

john