If new years are for wishes, old years are for gratefulness and gratitude, thanks for the new we have and what we had and no longer have, thanks for what we had to give and what we gave, thanks for invitations given and received.

Talking with my friend Tom about alignment in organizations. Aligment implies a certain linearity of compliance to the vision, principles, and trust of the people at the so-called top of the organization. I suggested instead the power of confluence where people act together on shared vision, principles and trust making shared flow experiences literally more possible.

We think of our joy and suffering as personal, but all joy lives in a single field of joy as all suffering lives in a single field of suffering. Each of us contributes to and draws from each infinite field of energy every moment.

Cleveland’s Stephanie Tubbs Jones was one of the 20 celebrated lives in this year’s NY Times retrospective. It’s no surprise to those of us from and in Cleveland who understand the propensity of talent emanating from and now residing here. It has always been a place where great creativity and innovation thrives. May we have the intelligence to be in awe of our own.

In Buddhism, there is no time spent speculating on the unknowable in this life. Just being present is enough cause for anything otherwise inspired by after-life mythologies. As it turns out, being present is infinitely more demanding as a practice than believing anything.

So yesterday, my 80-something mother was asking about my recent community work where we invited people to create and share their 20 year vision in dream space. Her inquiry: “How do you dream in dream space when you’re in your 80’s and 90’s?” It provoked an interesting conversation about the profound value and uncommon practice of doing just that among her living peers. Reflecting that she will probably outlive her mother’s mid-90 year legacy, it provoked her interest in starting with 5 years out, expressed in palpable intrigue with the possibilities.

When we talk about the “gifts” we bring to others, we’re talking about the gift of ourselves rather than purchased gifts. The gift of ourselves is the gift of our stories because, from an ontological perspective, we are our stories. They speak to the meanings larger than the details of our experience and the contours of our lives. Our stories are the gifts that connect us, that grow richer with use.

It’s a good season to dream of one world, a world of differences but not divisions, a world where the contributions of all make a difference and are honored as such.

There is an old Japanese saying that first, a man takes a drink, then a drink takes a drink, and then the drink takes the man. The same is true for money. First, a man takes money, then money takes money, and then the money takes the man. Be thankful every day that the depth of your heart is more important than the breadth of your currency.

Joy has no interest in anything but itself and at the same time acts unselfconsciously. Unhappiness fears the death of joy, and so represses joy so it never dies. Joy has no interest in getting rid of unhappiness, its own being is sufficient. Although joy is an infinite container, it holds nothing and all things.