As a new year dawns many of us are fired with the energy of new possibilities in our lives.

And rightly so. A whole new orbit of the sun; a new calendar of events planned and to-be-planned; and the buzz of electric freshness is in the air.

But how grounded are such hopes, visions, and energy? It depends on how we interpret them.

I’m a sucker for science trivia—microscopically or telescopically.

According to medical science, the human body completely renews itself every seven years! The cornea replaces itself every 24 hours, the skin every 14 days, the blood cells every 90 days, the soft tissue every six months, and the dense tissue every two to seven years. For every 60 seconds that have elapsed, our body has lost 300,000,000 cells! Yep, the amount of cells that die in our bodies every minute is equivalent to the population of the U.S.

But here’s the flipside: more cells are born than die in our bodies. Each day, 10 to 50 trillion cells are replaced in our body. If you’re a bio nerd you probably already know this, but I think it’s pretty cool!

Over the years many of us, I surmise, have had the idea of reinventing ourselves as a new year approaches. But what does reinventing ourselves actually mean? I’m not sure that it means anything really. Perhaps it’s just another ‘hip’ platitude to roll off the tongue when we’re trying to ‘explain’ our current circumstances to those already neatly ensconced in their pigeon-holed lives. Now that may sound cynical and I don’t mean it to; but unlike the human body and its self-perpetuating physiology, if our mindset and human consciousness are not in alignment with the ‘evolutionary impulse’ of creation itself, then we’re not really going anywhere—are we?

And what does being in alignment with the evolutionary impulse of creation or the universe mean? 

Wow…that’s a humdinger of a question! Okay I’ll give it a stab: if you just pause for a moment and dream backwards to the very dawning of what we experience as linear time—the ‘big bang’ nanosecond of unimaginable intensity that unleashed into existence the electrons, protons, elements and gases that would form the basis of everything to follow including us. 13.7 billion years ago, the creative potential and energy contained in that single ‘moment’ was a creative energy and evolutionary impulse that lives on in us today. 

In other words: the very nature or essence of the cosmos we inhabit (and those universes that possibly exist in other dimensions imperceptible to us) is to expand, unfold, and create anew unceasingly—not just at the cusp of a new year!

Ourselves and everything in creation are personalized expressions of the universe-come-to-consciousness. And for us to consciously align with this divine energy that birthed us is to align with an emergent (always new) creative and evolutionary impulse that does not stand still, but rather draws relentlessly from a wellspring of pure possibility.

So there you have it!  We are the evolutionary impulse of the universe; we are (in consciousness) the very tip of an ever-expanding cosmos; we are an individuation of Divine Consciousness that loves to explore new ways of experiencing and expressing itself. We are—if we dare to believe it—always beginning again. 

We are drawing deeply from the wellspring of pure possibility within us…and we have the capacity to do this with inexhaustible verve, daring, and vitality.  

Now if this means—as it may for some—gingerly stepping into the breach of the unknown as a new year approaches, we can be confident that we are supported, guided and not alone. As the spiritual Law of Detachment states: ‘In our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.’

Who needs an energy drink? I’m good, thank you!

Happy New Year!

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Author: Gerard Murphy 

Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Nasa Commons at Flickr