My tiny, bold move for the year is attunement. When we are sync’d up, everything else flows and we feel hopeful. When I’m not, days like today would make me freak the hell out. We need to talk about these fires on the horizon.
“Sometimes, the end’s not coming.
It’s not coming— the end is here.”
- U2, The Little Things that Give you Away
It is Day 8, and 2025 is intense. I’m working from my hotel in Glendale, CA. There are wild fires raging nearby in Pacific Palisades. The wind outside is so crazy you hear giant palm tree branches bouncing off the windows. Evacuees are checking in, likely having lost their homes, with burning debris in their eyes. I’m doing my best to comfort and connect. All the while looking up at a cloud of jet black, blotting out the sun.
I’m working in Cali for three days of meetings with monks and devotees of Self-Realization Fellowship. Paramahansa Yogananda founded our Mother Center in Los Angeles 100 years ago this year, in 1925. Twenty-one years later, Autobiography of a Yogi was published (1946). This book transformed my life, as it has done for millions— providing a path and structure I desperately needed, but didn’t know I was missing. As I’ve learned to walk it, it has also given me hope and joy to spare. When anyone asks “What are you on, and where can I get some?” The answer is always Yogananda’s teaching. All of this culminates the end of this month, when I head to India for a 5.5 week pilgrimage tour through most of the sites of Autobiography of a Yogi. This week though, I’m a strategist for the next 50-1000 years of the guru’s work. It’s hard to express what this means to me. Just knowing that conversation is happening, let alone playing any small part in it.
The duality, or maya of this trip are these wildfires. Yogananda’s sacred Lake Shrine is currently surrounded by fire, as brave teams fight to protect it. 30,000 local residents, and all the monks who live on site at that ashram have been evacuated. I woke up thinking about Yogananda’s robes and crystal collection, displayed in the book shop. Most of us can’t help but worry about the black cloud of the incoming administration. At worst, these may feel like end times. At best, like a rerun of Back to the Future 2 when Biff became mayor.
Where will we find Hope this Year?
2025 is a 9 year in numerology (2+0+2+5). This means a year of massive completion. Certainly true for me, and in the lives of everyone I coach. When I look around the United States, I see it everywhere. Not the most settling, peaceful feeling to wonder what we could be losing, or what is being completed. Each day, the Divine plan gives and takes, while asking us who we intend to be in this process. How will we practice, help one another, and be the light in this world? God and guru whisper, reassuringly: “You’re already doing it. Keep going. The world needs more from each of us.”
Truth is nothing to screw with. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced it will no longer support fact-checking any content. These platforms already felt like vapid, endless holes of distraction. I think of a former client who was getting all of his news and COVID “science” from Instagram. This led him into a whacky parallel universe of distrust in things like science, any news media (which can be helpful during a global shutdown), and sadly, his family. He’s still out there somewhere, convinced he’s living his best life. Heck, maybe he is? The height of “blissful ignorance” is staying lost in your own delusion. This works for addicts, and members of cults— until it doesn’t.
I recently cut my brother out for sending me anymore Twitter science, or propaganda. It makes him spew unkind things. I love my only brother. And, I’d never let myself, or anyone else speak to me that way. It’s crazy that anyone can grab any user-generated content to support their increasingly warped worldview. I called him and said, “Unsubscribe until further notice.” However, Twitter’s rebrand did make one thing easier: “X marks the Sh*tter”. My Mom tried to show me a Twitter video he sent her about “The Real India”. Obviously, he’s concerned for my safety on my trip. When I google’d the video’s author, she is of course alt-right, and ultra radical. Thanks, but no. My retreat organizer has traveled, or lived in India nearly 40 years and has hosted dozens of groups. I’ll be OK.
Science doesn’t care if you believe in it. Its laws will affect you just the same. In studying yoga and practicing, I’ve noticed the same is true about God. Whatever That Entity may be (yogis feel, and eventually know that God is everything, everywhere. We are extensions of God expressing Itself)… Whatever that may be, it also doesn’t care what you call Him, or Her. It just is. When we attune, and live in accordance with its will and its laws for us, we find increasing peace and joy, as we learn to take better care of one another.
We must improve things around here. (God sent help, He sent US). Or, we continue lying to ourselves and everyone. Hiding behind performative Faith, for one hour a week in church, while stepping over everyone, calling ourselves “His favorite children”. Citing Jesus, while having zero clue what he actually taught, or how he lived. No leaders, or media can do this for us. We’re on our own. We need to be empowered.
Our Brave, New Year.
What a wild world we live in at the moment! Instead of being anxious, let’s take a defiant stand in being hopeful. Hope isn’t delusion. It’s not pretending we can spiritually bypass and keep our heads in the sand. Sobriety doesn’t let us ignore bad habits, or behaviors that may have been killing us. Sobriety requires us to look life straight in the eye. The same with hope. Optimism. Love, in all forms.
Meta was only ever going to care about Meta. For better or worse, that’s just business. Your hope, your truth, your optimism— that is your business. The darkness only wins if you let it engulf your light. In 2025, hope isn’t served at an open bar. We must BYOB. Cultivate hope through deep practice, and bolster your fortress of light. This is my work this year as your friend, coach, and teacher. We must cultivate a fortress we can all find shelter in.
I just pictured the joy of playing with the giant parachute in gym class when we were kids. That energy. This is The Vibe, and The Move.
Keep Los Angeles in your prayers. I am safe, though concerned.
What are you feeling for this brave, new year?