This was the most difficult new year’s blog I’ve written. I wondered why, gave up a couple of times, but its insistence to be heard pestered me. Maybe it’s taken this long because I sense January belongs to 2017, and it is in February when 2018 begins to show its face. I also believe this year will be so startling, it’s hard to think of the year as one linear flow. It feels more like a series of moments that hostage the months around them.
There hasn’t been a year in recent history that promises to be more illuminating and terrifying than 2018. Much of it will be determined by how we perceive what is occurring, and where we put our attention and action. Not that events won’t force us even further outside our comforts. There will be anxiety, suffering and madness. There will also be grand discoveries, profound breakthroughs and bursts of surprising clarity and heart.
Realities not even in your mental toolbox now will rocket into recognition this next year, revealing what was once hidden. You will learn unexpected things about yourself. And major announcements will change everything about who you are and where we are going as a civilization.
So, what can we expect? And how to best govern this most expansive of years?
The Big Reveal: 2018 is a year of revelations. Big and small. Personal and global. These revelations will push many deeper into fear, even crisis as awareness grows and we realize what has been denied from sight. But these revelations will eventually free us from the past limitations of our potential. And once we are able to accept what it all means, everything we need to become blossoms.
Death or Breakthrough: Systems are on the verge of both collapse and birth. And so are our lives. This year many things will either end, transform or erupt into presence. Each of us will be asked to surrender rigid ideas and beliefs so that a greater good can emerge. The tighter we hold to our hallowed realities, the more painful it will be. We all have an opportunity to break free of our own conditioning and go beyond the selfish fears and constructs that brought us to this inevitable point in time.
Valiant Living: This year will require a bold courageousness to everyday life. As we learn to adjust to a restless new normal in our existence, those who flourish will look to themselves first when seeking positive change. 2018 urges flexibility and emotional leadership, and that requires the audacity to take responsibility for our personal landscapes and actually become the change we are screaming about. The opportunity to step into brand new ways of living will be everywhere. These occasions will not be found in the usual places or people.
Passing of the Elders: There has been a swell of family care-giving in recent years. Expect the greatest of generations to pass in large numbers as we move into a new epoch. All of you caregivers have generously cherished them, and in the process, honored a vanishing breed and way of life. As Boomers take their place as cultural elders – much to their chagrin – Millennials step forward and a major shift in consciousness is sparked. MillenniBoom! These two generations begin to engage each other as partners and the next world takes shape.
Power of the Purse: I am woman, hear me roar. This is the year women enlist their greatest superpower. And it’s economic. When the ascending spirit-mind of women unite with their vast spending influence there will be a ground-swell of economic and cultural change. Women will begin to use this massive influence as a singular voice to change public policy, hold corporations and institutions accountable, and create meaningful, lasting progress for the betterment of society and future generations. Black women are the heart and engine of this metamorphosis.
The Next Frontier is Within You: Our concepts of spirituality and science merge. With all the focus on AI and Blockchain, the most transformational and critical technology for global advancement is the exploration of our own human consciousness. You change your timeline by changing daily habits and rhythms. While cultural renovation and personal struggle continue to saturate the global landscape, people begin to consider and deeply mine their inner life in the search for answers.
We Are All Nuts: Welcome your craziness. The world is turning upside down. Be gentle with yourself and others. This hysteria is simply the willful mind detaching from what it thought was reality, searching for somewhere else to be safe. There is nowhere safe this year if sameness is your goal. That knowledge is a powerful tool for personal and planetary evolution. Your head is giving way to your heart.
Explosion of Vulnerability: Masks come down, truth spills forth and people start sharing their secret struggles. The power of raw, honest communication emerges. Depth and humility rise from suffering, encouraging our vulnerability and its power to build strength. Seek out those who understand you most and forgive the fearful cruelty of those who understand you least. We are re-discovering the beautiful imperfection of our humanity. Share yourself. Ask for help.
Rise of integrity: People will be seeking out those they can trust. Integrity as a skill is not just the intention to be honest. It is knowing yourself, standing fully in who you are and speaking wholly from that place. Visionary leaders will begin to come out of the shadows and guide others towards their own authentic voices. In the presence of the real thing, people know the difference and react accordingly. Step up and take decisive action for what you believe.
Defy Biology: We must overcome our biology if we are going to move into a better world. Biology favors the strong, the aggressive. It kills whatever is physically and intellectually weaker. It must dominate to survive. It is the lowest form of our animal nature. Human consciousness and free will elevate us from this base place of survival to do what is right, compassionate, sensible. The ability to defy our biology resides in practicing self-awareness.
You Are the One: If you plan to stay on the planet, appreciate that body of yours. Stress and disease are working against you. Eat real food! Exercise a little every day. Take nature walks and sit under flowering branches pondering the sky. Read a little poetry. It’s the language of our unconscious, calling forth the wisdom within. Be alone with no technology as much as you can. Let those around you who matter most know it. They are the trees that hold your acre of life together.
Coalescence: Everything that happens this year is bringing us together; to grow and unite into a whole for the common good. Cardinal relationships and alliances are born from the chaos of the unknown that this year conjures. Like microscopic cells pulled together to form new life, thoughts and ideas attract, creating communities of purpose. In the ooze of 2018’s fear and hope and love and defiance, we begin to coalesce into something we’ve never been before. It will be harsh and thrilling.
2018 marks the rousing of a new renaissance. We are all heading into a wormhole, but we aren’t all going in at the same time. Be patient. How we individually and collectively respond will determine our shared experience for many years. Remember, we are all the same more than we are different, and what is not is what makes life wild and meaningful and worth living. No matter what struggles occur, there is also so much good arising in the world right now. Put your attention on that. Participate in that. More than ever, heed the Cherokee parable of the Two Wolves. All that will be remembered in life is the good you’ve done and the bad you’ve done and not much else.
Everything we will become inhabits this year. Full steam ahead!
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