Hang Onto Your Hat, It's 2012

Wasn't there one of those schlock-buster movies recently about this now-current year in which moviedom's computerized special effects show end-times stuff with the hope that thrilling (or scaring) the bejezzus out of everyone will boost ticket sales?  Something with lots of explosions and vehicles smashing up?  So who needs that!!  A friend told me she'd been down to Mayan country recently where one of the residents said that the Mayans were still there--they just hadn't done any calendar updates lately but it was time to get busy since people were starting to fidget.

Actually, if you think about it, 2011 was a pretty wild ride in its own right.  Every week another part of the world dominated the news.  New Zealand (earthquakes), Japan (tsunami), Philippines (flooding) ... tornadoes in Missouri, fires in Arizona, flooding in Vermont ... financial failures here, there, and everywhere, riots in London, near fisticuffs in Congress, the whole Arab Spring thing.

Though some of today's pundits would have us think so, especially about the economy, to my mind, this isn't a blip on some chart with things "returning to normal" one of these days.  Things aren't going back; they're going forward.  Not to cash in on drama-queen stuff (which really isn't my style), but we can all see what's happening.  And what I see is that people are finally waking up!  I used to think it wouldn't happen until the grid was impacted or suburban dwellers couldn't buy gas to get to work.  But, conditions are ripening.  Peak oil.  Climate change.  Solar flares of the sort to make NASA take another look.  Financial meltdowns and capital formation failures.  Social unrest.  Shoveling money from outsiders to insiders.  You can articulate it as well as I. 

Sounds like it's going to be time "to roll with the punches," as my mother used to say.  And in doing so, to think of this as a very creative time.  (Even in the Shiva dance sense of creation ... destruction ... creation.)  It might also be helpful to remember what Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche said:  "Chaos should be regarded as extremely good news."  This seems more like Big Picture stuff, but we can tap into that sense of "good news," that creativity if we need to come up with innovative solutions ... not forgetting our sense of humor along the way.  Plus doing something as sensible as strengthening and modulating ourselves.  (You know--scheduling some quiet time.  Getting out and moving--taking a walk, a hike, a canoe ride.  Listening to the wind, feeling the sun.)  Plus letting any "externals" tumble as they will (banks, institutions, whatever) and concentrating, instead, on such "internals" as community, family, cooperation, camaraderie, trust... and, of course, flexibility!

Experiencing some quiet time.