now entering 2012

It's already the New Year in Sidney, Australia! Happy 2012! May the fireworks inspire and remind each of us of our beautiful, bright, sparkling, explosive potential.

I'm happy and grateful 2012 will be a wonderful and transcendental year for humanity.

Photo: La Prensa

keywords 2011

Being Present.

This simple idea is said to be the key to perpetual happiness. Getting better at this one, but, despite knowing better, I still find myself taking the occasional joy-squelching detour into "the past," "the future," or some full-fledged, outrageous, Broadway-worthy drama that is just going on in my head.

karmic rewards

Special guests Jan and Lisa tackle some choppy, wintry waters off Bliss Beach. Great friends are one of life's sweetest rewards.

2011 keywords

Forgiveness.

This has been a perennial spiritual lesson for me. Being present seems to be the perfect antidote for neutralizing the negative energy inherent in past "wrongs," whether real or imagined. The more I master being present the better I'm getting at forgiving.

you are free too

It is possible to be happy and joyful most of the time. You just have to look at little children and see their natural joy. You may say that little children are free and don't have anything to worry about, but you are free too! You are free to choose worry or to choose joy, and whatever you choose will attract exactly that. Worry attracts more worry. Joy attracts more joy.

- lessons from The Secret

quote of the day

You have to be strong.

- Mom

seeing the light...

...at the end of the tunnel. 2012 will be a year of many victories for Lurlene Cooper, my astonishing mother. Here the "Iron Angel" poses in front of the trellis tunnel on the western portion of our Paya Bay property.

2011 keywords

Surrender.

There is a crucial spiritual lesson wrapped in this simple idea. Either you completely trust Infinite Intelligence or you don't trust it at all. You can't half-trust, in much the same way a woman can't be half-pregnant. It's one or the other. 1 or 0. Black or white. If you truly - TRULY - trust Infinite Good, you quickly realize that there is no other option but to completely surrender.

I'm sensing I've made a bit of progress with this spiritual challenge this year. Incredibly, I'm also finding that the more I let go and allow the Universe to gently unfold the next moment of my conscious awareness, the more amazing those present moments become.

december solstice

Tomorrow, December 22, is the December Solstice (also known as the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere). It marks the shortest day of the year; after which subsequent days will start becoming longer. This astronomical event is the true (and -- if you really think about -- the most legitimate) origin of the celebrations humans have held throughout history at this time of the year.

Merry Winter Solstice! May you experience much peace, love, abundance, and spiritual expansion during the next twelve months... and beyond...

[Thanks, Lisa, for your sweet assistance with this post.]

belgian white chocolate

Yum, yum, jan.

your whole future life

It is not enough to know the principles in The Secret - you must DO them, unceasingly, every single day. You must LIVE the principles. Step by step you will become the master of your thoughts and feelings, and the master of your life. 

There is nothing more important than this, because your whole future life relies on you.

- lessons from The Secret

east zone

Just one of many reasons eastern Roatan is so exquisitely charming.

holes to heaven

And there were so many fewer questions
When stars were still just the holes to heaven

- Jack Johnson

Thanks, Lisa! I love you so much, my dear friend.

your own reason

The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis.

- Dalai Lama

power of appreciation

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

- Dalai Lama

I'm happy and grateful for the extraordinary life the Universe lovingly unfolds before me. A life experience that follows the path of truth and leads me ever upward and ever outward. An amazing life that only gets better every day.

a beautiful fairy tale

A stunning image from Lana and Bruce's ethereal beach wedding celebrated recently on Bliss Beach at Paya Bay Resort. To learn more about having your wedding at Paya Bay, click here.

kindness

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

- Dalai Lama

person of the year

All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries' political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt — sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats. Two decades after the final failure and abandonment of communism, they believe they're experiencing the failure of hell-bent megascaled crony hypercapitalism and pine for some third way, a new social contract.

- TIME

I've been leading an arduous little revolution of my own against entrenched irrationality, bigotry, injustice, and ignorance. I'm definitely feeling vindicated. I sense that perhaps the Mayans were right on target about 2012. It will be a year in which we'll witness profound changes in key paradigms and a transformation of world reality as we know it.

I'm all for a New Age, or, as I also call it, Humanity 2.0. A quick survey of recent world events makes our "current age" seem astonishingly primitive, shockingly irrational, and -- frankly - "below" the potential of an evolved 2011 human being. It's way past time for a software upgrade on human consciousness. The crap currently installed is buggy, outdated, and crashes way too often.

Fascinatingly, just as it allows us to upgrade our iTunes software, the Internet -- being the information superhighway that it is -- is the technology phenomenon that underlies and is driving the already-in-motion transformation of our collective consciousness. As a species we'll be eternally in debt to Mr. Gore for inventing it.

The Internet isn't just networking our computers, it's networking our minds. Think about that.

approaching god

The Higgs boson or "God particle" suddenly seems excitingly close.

Photo: Spiegel

what is it that I want?

You can make 2012 the best year of your life! And you can do it very easily, right now. 

All you have to do is set the most powerful intention you can ever set in your life, which is that you will focus only on what you want, think only about what you want, and talk only about what you want. Decide right now that anytime you find yourself thinking or talking about what you don't want, you will stop and demand of yourself, "What is it that I want?" And with all your might, with all your strength, with all your willpower - you will focus on what you want! 

This one intention, repeated daily until the New Year and reinforced through 2012, will ensure that you make 2012 the year that your dreams came true, and the greatest year of your life!

- lessons from The Secret

overheard

Some people try to control everything. You can't. You can't control everything. All you can control is how you react to any given situation. 

- a special Paya Bay guest

human rights

The US took a groundbreaking step on global LGBT rights Tuesday, joining the UK in tying foreign aid to governments’ protection of sexual minorities, raising the stakes in the increasingly globalized battle over gay rights. 

The Obama Administration’s sweeping initiative —which will potentially steer billions of dollars in US aid toward countries and programs that protect rights while expanding efforts to protect LGBT refugees — was announced ahead of Human Rights Day. The timing reinforced a now-common refrain that has been spoken, chanted and shouted by rights activists around the world for decades: Gay rights equal human rights.

- GlobalPost

A gutsy, admirable, and transcendental move by the Obama administration. There is no argument stronger than human rights. I repeat: There is no argument stronger than human rights. Despite the despicable lies zealously perpetuated by some fear-mongering religions, it should be obvious to the reasoning person that no Love-based, omniscient, infallible "Creator" (if, indeed, such an entity exists) would discriminate against parts of its own creation. It's like God saying, "I'm Infinite Intelligence and Infinite Love, but -- just for kicks -- I'll create some humans with a sexual orientation "mistake" so the other 90% of humans can judge, bully, reject, vilify, and/or crucify them." Sorry. That simply makes no logical sense. If such a psychotic God entity exists, it should be locked in a padded room at an insane asylum. It's certainly not worthy of worship, that's for sure.

The "shining city upon a hill" is regaining some of its lost luster.

the greatest human gift

Change in a country begins with one person. Each country reflects the inner peace or turmoil of its mass population, and so as one person changes they affect the rest of the population. One person has the power within them to bring massive change to their country through immense love and peace within themselves. But we cannot bring about peace and well-being to our country unless we have conquered that in our own life. Do you see? You cannot give what you do not have.

Each person's job is to bring utter harmony into their own life, and then they will become the greatest human gift for their country and the world.

- lessons from The Secret 

photo of the day

A crab catcher hunts in the Wetlands Reserve. Paya Bay Resort, Roatan, Honduras.

overheard

Money is very toxic.

- Mikhail

This brilliant young gentleman, who happens to be a Jewish Indian, is an example of having attracted a member the world's intelligentsia to my family's resort.

ms. aung san suu kyi + sec. clinton

 

Wow! Angels.

An incredibly powerful, paradigm-changing moment. This simple handshake between two extraordinary women is the antithesis of the very disturbing, very questionable, "pre-emptive" Halliburton U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. The historic (herstoric?) image above reminds me of the "feel good" Bill Clinton Presidency. It is a visual that helps heal the collective human psyche. Personally, it gives me renewed respect and admiration for the Great American Nation. A nation which in its very recent past has -- at times -- seemed alarmingly hijacked by its lowest common denominator.

It only gets better.

shout out to susie

I special shout out to my friend (and recent Paya Bay guest) Susie! One of few people I suspect may know me better than I know myself. You never cease to amaze me, friend.

Thank you for sharing your light and beautiful energy.

Namaste.

photo of the day

Roadside lychee fruit stand. Roatan, Honduras.

powerful

...And so it is.

Powerful little phrase, that one.