The New Year is upon us. If 2020 was big, then 2021 is guaranteed to be bigger. Why? Because this is the year we get to apply all the new teachings that we were handed in 2020. 2020 was a fierce ”go to your rooms and take a good hard look at yourselves.”

And what did we see?

That we are all interconnected in a stunningly instant and all encompassing manner. That our invisible community members are, and always were, the heroes. That injustice, inequity, systemic societal diseases are rampant and that the majority of our world’s citizens do not support that way of being.

As if that wasn’t enough, we lost, and continue to lose the lives of our sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, our teachers and doctors, and neighbors. The lessons are merciless and strike us harshly so that we never forget. There is no way to return back to the old way.

What else did we see?

We saw that kindness and love are our superpowers; that we are genius and capable of miracles when we work together; to feed the hungry, to create a vaccine, to stop the wildfires, to prevent the spread, to protest peacefully.

We heard and felt our artists sing, dance and act the words and feelings that we could not express. And we did this together, even as we quarantined.

So what does that mean to me, or to you?

What does it mean to our small individual selves; working away in our day-to-day responsibilities to create our lives, feed our children, support our families?

May I suggest two invitations:

Invitation #1 KNOW YOURSELF. Invest in knowing yourself. You came to this lifetime with a gift, a genius, a message that only you can give. Living with this gift in your forefront will make life exponentially more rewarding, meaningful, joyful and energizing.

Your gift may not be what you do for a living, or what you know clearly about yourself. Its so under your nose that you have taken it for granted – or dismissed it entirely from your entire life.

But likely your family and friends know this as your gift. They see your essence and they love that side of you. It comes out in the activities that bring you feelings of joy and freedom.

These feelings - joy, freedom, timelessness, love- are the message from the soul that we are on the right track. They are expansive. When these feelings appear in your day, take note: what are you doing? Do this more.

When you feel the opposite- the contraction of scarcity, limit, frustration, heaviness, fear, or burden. Take note: what are you doing? Do these activities less.

And this is where the revolution lies. Most often we have designed our lives (career, social lives, extracurricular responsibilities) quite unintentionally, out of habit, or social conditioning. These are our default purposes- the ones we inherited from our parents, society, or school. Alternatively, over the course of time we change, but we still do the same thing we decided upon 20 years ago. Think career shifts, relationship shifts, or health crisis. Are you being intentional about what fills your life, by way of job, relationships, and activities?

It takes awareness and diligence to undue these unconscious choices. You don’t have to do it alone. Find a soul partner, an accountability partner, someone who will support your commitment to release the old and bring in the new.

That is what 2020 taught us. The old way of being is no longer working, and a new way needs be ushered in. This global shift starts within our own hearts and bellies, with the rhythm of our own days, in our own individual lives. But the small is no longer small, but a symbol of the whole revolution that is sweeping our earth.

Invitation #2 GET ALONG WITH OTHERS. Yes, we were taught this in kindergarten but along the way it became acceptable to discard this basic human decency for creating a false dichotomy of 'us and them;’ ‘winners and losers;’ ‘better and worse;’ ‘right and wrong.’

We don’t need to agree with everyone- that is impossible. But we can respect others, even people we do not like. We can respect their points of view, and give them the right to hold their own point of view, which is an expression of their life experience, which we did not live. We lived our own experience and as such we have our own point of view.

And given that there are no two lives that were even remotely similar - emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, biologically, socially, culturally- it means that there are billions of people on the planet with different experiences holding different points of view.

And this is exactly how the great mother or universal intelligence designs our society. Humans are designed to be one huge mosaic of unique perspectives that fit together, work together, respect each other….like a puzzle.

So how do you get along with people who you can’t understand and even abhor?

First, realize your strong feelings of abhorrence are really at core expressions of fear and sadness. Underneath it all you are afraid, and guess what? So are they. So you and they share that in common. Repeat. You are they share that in common- you actually have commonalities.

Second, seek and find what more you have in common. What are the values that you share? What are the circumstances that you BOTH are trying to create for yourself and your loved ones? At core, they are likely the similar.

Third, compromise. Seek and find the win-wins. Design the puzzle so that we can all have room to create those things that are most important to each of us. In the negotiation be willing is give in on those things that are less important to us. Stand for what you stand for, and believe that there is a way to achieve it in concert with the other.

Gosh, doesn't that sound so easy? Like kindergarten. Obviously it isn’t.

But the health of our planet and its’ living beings depends on it. If 2020 taught us anything; it is that we are brilliant when we work together and when we love each other. That starts in the smallest of ways, by being understanding and kind as a path to getting along with others.

So here is where the rubber meets the road. Start today.

Know Yourself. Declare that you will live a life intentionally crafted to make you happy and to wield your super-power in service of something larger than yourself. This will be more fun, anyway. This is the heart of our current personal revolution.

Get Along with Others. Declare that you will work with, not against, the tide of creation that says that there are no two people or two perspectives alike. Make a stand for love and harmony by accepting and working with different points of view. This is the heart of our current social revolution.

Happy 2021.