As this year comes to a close, we pause at a threshold.

New Year’s Eve is not just the ending of a calendar year;

it is a moment of impermanence made visible.

In Zen we are not asked to fix the past or control the future.

We are invited instead to meet this moment fully.

When we release the stories of what should have been,

we touch the intimacy of what is.

This turning of the year is a powerful reminder that practice is always now.

Awakening does not wait for better circumstances or a cleaner beginning.

It happens in the midst of uncertainty, grief, joy, and resolve- in this very moment.

As we step into the new year, may we carry forward the commitment to show up:

to listen deeply, to act with courage and care, to speak truthfully,

and to remember our interconnection with all beings.

Nothing is carried over but our intention.

Nothing is required but our presence.

In our own way, may we walk alongside the Buddhist monks

from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center and Aloka

on their Peace Walk toward our nation’ capital.

This is an action of embodied bearing witness and being peace

in the midst of wars, genocides, climate suffering, and the charnel grounds of our world.

May the coming year be met with courage, humility, and compassion-

for one another and for this world we share.

~Roshi Joan Halifax

how I will listen deeply is directly related to softening…

inquiry for today~ what do you hope and plan for now?

coming up for peace….

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light;

The year is dying in the night;

Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

~Alfred Lord Tennyson