Year End Meditations
What did it all mean? What were the sacrifices for? Is there a crystal in the ashes of the crucible? A pearl created from sand in the oyster?
Dear Readers, the year 2021 is fading fast into our past. And what a year it was. What did it do for us? What meaning can we wring from it?
We are not idealized wild things.
We are imperfect mortal beings, aware of that mortality even as we push it away, failed by our very complication, so wired that when we mourn our losses we also mourn, for better or for worse, ourselves. As we were. As we are no longer. As we will one day not be at all. …We all know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a time when we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead.
Let them become the photograph on the table.
Let them become the name on the trust accounts.
Let go of them in the water.
Knowing this does not make it any easier to let go of them in the water.― Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Savor past career joys while still sensing the sorrow from their destruction
I wrote this way back, more than a year ago:
“Money corrupts, especially trillions of dollars. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely. But I naively thought there was some underlying integrity to my professional colleagues. Nope. Not in 2020.
Is there any hope for rehabilitation? Rebuild trust in what once was a noble career? Maybe. Only when the disinfecting light of transparency and truth is shown upon the whole dirty despicable mess, can we start the process.”
The Destruction of the Sand Mandala
Each year Buddhist monks gather together to build a beautiful sand mandala sculpture. Then, once completed, they destroy the sand mandala. After praying over the mandala, the monks sweep it up in parts. This act of destruction is a reminder to us that everything is moving and temporary. Nothing is permanent. Then the grains are placed in a jar, wrapped in silk and taken to a place with moving water, where the sand is sprinkled, symbolic of the transitory nature of life. https://buddhists.org/the-symbolism-behind-the-creation-and-destruction-of-the-buddhist-sand-mandala/
Current passions - Build anew again
In the past year, I actually did find BRILLIANT BRAVE HONEST ETHICAL colleagues. Such was the silver lining to all this year’s misery. Seems that the best of us instinctively clustered together on the alternative less-censored media platforms. For me, it was a confirmation of humanity’s goodness and compassion. A sign to keep the faith.
And more inklings arrived just in time. Hope to build a new system for health from the ashes of the old corrupt evil structures comes from the American Frontline doctors. They are calling together those of like mind to form local clinics, vowing to be free from corporate chains and restrictions.
It supports my call to hyper-local focus discussed in my newsletter on subsidiarity.
Now is definately that time to wrestle control back into our own hands, and use our own judgement for ourselves and our families.
Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville:
Decentralization has, not only an administrative value, but also a civic dimension, since it increases the opportunities for citizens to take interest in public affairs; it makes them get accustomed to using freedom. And from the accumulation of these local, active, persnickety freedoms, is born the most efficient counterweight against the claims of the central government, even if it were supported by an impersonal, collective will.
Tarot card meditation for 2022
Song meditation for 2022
Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things
Poem Meditation for 2022
Desiderata, Max Ehrmann, (1872 - 1945). c 1927
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Wishing you all peace, serenity and regeneration in the new year ahead! - Laura Kragie MD
Lovely, thank you!