Well, Alchemist, we've arrived at yet another year's end. Now is a great time to reflect on all of last year's experiences. Ask yourself, what have you learned from the challenges you've faced? How did you manage the difficulties that came into your life? Were you able to manifest your desired reality?
If there's one thing you can be sure of, it is that you've arrived at the other end of whatever it was you were dealing with, and hopefully with greater wisdom and insight. While life may not always be easy or fair, you may have noticed that it never throws you anything beyond your ability to handle. We are always right where we need to be, each experience fulfilling a role in our development through this life.
Alchemist, most of us forget that life is a classroom, not a test. It may be tempting to wonder what the outcome will be in the future, to know what grade we'll receive once we take the test, but it rarely carries with it the true meaning behind our experiences.
The present moment is where you'll find actual meaning. After all, it's the only moment you'll ever truly inhabit. The past and future only exist in our imagination, and time is the illusion that sustains those thoughts. So the irony should not be lost on you that our civilization celebrates the year's end with such enthusiasm.
What exactly is ending anyway? Who decided that one rotation around the sun should signify anything? If, for any reason, this year was not all it was cracked up to be, don't be disappointed. Nothing has ended. Everything is only beginning. That is not to discourage anyone who may have had a great year. On the contrary, nothing ending means that the good that has entered your life doesn't have to stop here; it can keep on coming.
Time does not have to control us. Time wasted, needing time, planning for the future, regretting the past, these are all illusions! What we have within the present moment is the freedom to change immediately within the everlasting now.
Whether or not this coming year will be good or bad is undetermined. But this exact moment can be whatever you want it to be.
