What does the New Year hold in store for us?
So we've reached that crystal-ball-gazing time of year again. What will this year bring for us all? At a personal level, will we be successful and abundant; will we get that new job, house or will we meet our soul mate? At a global level, what will be the increasing effects of the financial credit crunch, peak oil and the warming of our planet? Will our increasingly shakey society survive another year?...

In my truth such questions cannot be predicted accurately or prophesised because we create the future by what we are being in the moment and every thought word and deed effects our journey. Whilst we may know our ultimate destination (to know ourselves as "God"), we can't accurately predict the various twists and turns on the pathway to getting there.

If you resonate with what I'm saying, you might also conclude there is only one ultimate choice...to surrender to the natural flow of life which we uncover in the moment. However this truth does not in any way render us powerless - we always have the choice as to how we experience the moment. In fact the more we surrender, the more we open up and the more of life's awesome majesty we feel.

I observe continually both in myself and others that each moment renders a simple black and white choice...we can either attune to the lightness, joy, expansiveness and sense of at-one-ment with all things or alternatively we can attune to the density, darkness and difficulty in our lives - the struggle for an outcome. In fact this is the central message of the 10 minute mini movie we've recently produced called "Gateways of Light" (if you've not seen it yet, you can watch it freely on our website... Play).

To me there are two predominant forces at work in the Universe: "Separation Consciousness" and "Unity Consciousness". The former takes us to ever greater degrees of separation from the Source, the latter yields ever finer experiences of oneness and unity. In us, Separation Consciousness manifests as ego and Unity Consciousness as the soul. The choice between the two is actually quite simple; it is the choice between fear and love. We can either live in worry, desire or even hopes and prayers of what may come; or we can trust absolutely that whatever happens is right for our own journey of unfolding.

If we can attune to the lightness - the soul - by finding that trust, then the tightness and density begins to dissolve and we discover a deepening sense of harmony and at-one-ment with all things. To me, this is what love really is. What's more, I believe the one true purpose of the Universe is to experience ourselves as this love and at the highest levels of consciousness, we continually manifest circumstances in our lives to make this one and only choice; to find the experience of love - the light through the tunnel of darkness.

So my prediction for the coming year is that each of us will be once again continually confronted with this same choice disguised and masqueraded as many different things: how are we being in relation to global warming for example? Do we get tight and angry or instead active about how we are being in relation to it? How are we being with our friends and family - do we descend into judgment or are we unconditonally open to what they are now being? How are we being in relation to resources (money for example) - do we trust we will be given exactly what we need to be who we truly are? or do we continue to effort and struggle for security and thereby manifest that sense of lack anyway?

I believe that we see this black and white choice in EVERY SINGLE EVENT that takes place in our private lives and on the world stage at large and so I confidently predict that it will come true once more as 2008 unfolds. Please feel free to test me on it!

So on behalf of the Openhand Team, for 2008 we wish you...

• enough struggle to discover surrender
• enough darkness to see the light
• enough confinement to find liberation
• enough boredom to discover timelessness
• enough failure to find humility
• enough challenge to empower you
• enough success to realise completeness was already there
• enough companionship to find the joy of at-one-ment within
• enough synchronicity to realise yourself as the magician
• enough abundance to fill your heart with even more love

I believe 2008 will be just as always...everything we need it to be!

Chris

Openhand Foundation
unfolding into light
http://www.openhandweb.org