A Sharing By Barbara Mayer
New Year? New Attitude!
As 2012 eases its way into our calendars and our lives, some hints about making the most of this auspicious and sometimes dreaded year can be learned from Sedona’s lessons of 2011.
Indeed, while there were many good things which happened in Sedona and the Verde Valley, 2011 saw some disheartening episodes, one of which was the level of personal attack and vicious rhetoric used by some during the Proposition 310 referendum. That sad time for Sedona is in the past now, and all we can hope is that in the immanent Sedona City Council elections which are a few months away in the March balloting, more civil and more factual campaigning will show greater hope for a more positive future for Sedona.
While some predictions call for calamity and global suffering in 2012, many more see this new year as a time for new and much more positive beginnings which feature an eventual new way of being on the planet. Anger, mean speech and despicable tactics never bring positive change, and the division of one side against another can never spell good things for Sedona, our state, and our nation. With city, state and a national election for president as well as many members of the Senate and House of Representatives happening this year, 2012 could be a repetition of the same old divisive attitudes and actions, or it could signal a new way of respect and caring for all who share this city, this state, this nation and for that matter, this very world we call home.
The beginning of a new year is a very delicate time. It is ripe with promise for better things, a more positive and productive attitude, and great hope that we can turn the tide of division, anger, mean- spiritedness and attack into a new time of compassion and honoring all as equal under the sun and the Light of All Creation.
2012. History may look back at it as a time when we passed up some of the greatest opportunities for a magnificent future, or as a time when the human race finally got it right, realizing its potential for creating a new and more civil, compassionate and productive way of living and sharing on the planet. Sedona can be a beacon of light and hope for the rest of the world, but that challenge can only be started by each one of us who has the privilege of calling this magnificent place – home.
2012. It might be the chance of a lifetime to turn things around, and I say it’s worth a try. Are you up for it?
Barbara Mayer is an Interfaith/InterSpiritual minister, author, teacher and poet who resides in Sedona, Arizona.