The Phoenix Rising in 2010

I am feeling invigorated and new today.  Resurgence in spite of everything including  the economy and even my health woes from too much holiday goodies. The phoenix rising from the ashes has imbued my soul with ideas and transformation. 

In mythology, a phoenix is an immortal bird that, when it dies, bursts into flames and is reborn from its own ashes. "To rise from the ashes of the phoenix" means to make a miraculous comeback.

Each morning I walk the beach and wait for the sunrise and I enjoy closing my eyes and facing into the sun and on this day I felt the phoenix rising right from the sun and I was filled with hope and renewed. I am grateful to put 2009 behind me, not just for me but for most everyone that I know.  It has been a difficult year for many.

That heavenly body that we call the sun has always played an extraordinary role in the genesis of life itself and most assuredly the very existence of humankind at the pinnacle of evolution.  It is obvious that many of our ancient ancestors had rightfully worshiped this incandescent sun and placed it rightly above all other heavenly bodies.  We now know that this amazing heavenly body is indeed that specific source of energy from which all  life was derived.  That other possible exception is naturally the moon.  I can still remember my teachers authoritatively explaining that life on land had its genesis in the oceans of the world and that some of its creatures eventually "crawled out of those oceans and onto the land."  As is with so much of humanities ever-expanding knowledge, original theories are often redefined with new discoveries.  The moon is responsible for life having left the oceans in that the moon so dramatically effects the rising and lowering of the tides.  We now understand that life on land was more aptly the direct result of those earliest sea creatures that occupied the shallows being inadvertently stranded by the lowering of the tide, and those stranded individuals had no choice except to adapt to a new environment.  Therefore, the moon's role in our lives as living beings on land is undeniably the most essential of all natural ingredients absolutely necessary for our very genesis and existence. 

Our world has changed drastically since the introduction of the internet and the promotion of free trade among nations.  I believe we are in an adjustment period and that the way things were are now gone forever. Like the phoenix we will be reborn from our ashes of the past and we will be stronger than ever.  Time goes on, and on, as we know and in another hundred years perhaps we will look back to the year 2009 (not you and I, of course)  with an understanding of a profound change that began and evolved into what- we can only imagine.

I choose to believe in America and in our potential to remain a strong economic power.  It is here that many still dream to come and it is important to keep these dreams alive forever.

Happy New Year to All and a Prosperous 2010!

Jean Harper