[This meditation adapts and expands the poem “A Calm, Clear Place” by Jezibell Anat*)

A new year dawns, drawing our attention to the passage of time; drawing our attention to the past, how our lives have been; drawing our attention to the future, how our lives might be.

Yet, when we pause, when we rest, when we stop to experience our bodies living, when we just breathe, past and future fade away, and we’re left with the calm, clear space of this present moment.

A new year dawns, drawing our attention to the passage of time. But in this moment, let us not dwell in the past. Let us pause, rest, experience our bodies living. Just breathe in the calm, clear space of this present moment, noticing how the earth supports our bodies, how the community lifts our spirits, how there is peace, how we center ourselves in love.

A new year dawns, drawing our attention to the passage of time. But in this moment let us not concern ourselves with possible futures that may never come. Let us pause, rest, experience our bodies living. Just breathe in the calm, clear space of this present moment, peering deeper into this world and this life, opening our hearts to possibility, letting our thoughts expand, crossing the threshold–the hinge between worlds–between our day-to-day living and our apprehension of connection, interdependence, oneness.

A new year dawns, drawing our attention to the passage of time. Before we embrace the year, let us pause, rest, experience our bodies living, and just breathe in the calm, clear space of this present moment.

* Jezibell Anat’s, “A Calm, Clear Place” is in Janamanchi, Abhi and Janamanchi Abhimanyu, Falling Into the Sky (Boston: Skinner House, 2013) p. 48.