Somewhere Over the Rainbow
It is already half way through January. The sense of “new year” already feels faded. I always expect the first days of new year to have a sense of “newness” — somewhat even sacred — probably from the fond memories I have of the new years’ days growing up in Japan when there were a series of rituals to be had: from deep cleaning the house, decorating, having new year’s feast, and going to either temples for mid-night bells, to watch the first sun rise, or to Shinto shrines for blessings. I’ve tried to maintain some parts of these rituals, mostly around cleaning and having some flowers in the house, living here in the U.S.
Also for many years, I would spend the last days between Christmas and New Year in a silent meditation retreat. I really loved spending those last days of the year in silence and contemplation. As the teacher I used to sit with for those retreats had stopped offering the year-end retreats, I haven’t done that for a while. Even though I was aware of the opportunities to attend a year-end virtual retreat, I didn’t sign up as much as I wanted to.
While the COVID-19 is sweeping through our lives (and yes, it’s getting closer and closer) and the politics is messy, I did allow some time to pause, reflect and envision for the new year nonetheless. Between the new administration and vaccines, it will still be a while before things may calm down, but I’m personally feeling hopeful that a lot of good things would come out of this major setback we’ve had in 2020. Many of the changes we had to make personally and collectively would likely become the way, and more changes would be made to adjust to them accordingly.
Other than the big change of moving to our mountain home unexpectedly, I also made some changes in 2020: I moved my real estate license to a completely virtually operated broker, eXp Realty and got myself an electric car, both of which were largely prompted by how we are now operating our lives in the pandemic. Now as I look forward to this 2021, I decided to really focus my work on promoting “green lifestyle” and “green homes,” and am quite excited about that. As I keep taking the next right action, I’m trusting that I will be able to get to the other side of the rainbow and find my right livelihood.
#YouCanSitWithMe