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"The Light has come…It is a new era, in which a new world is born…Today the real world rises before us in gladness, to be seen at last."

––Lesson 75, A Course in Miracles

The beginning of a new year always provides opportunity for self-reflection and personal renewal. It is like being born anew, fresh with a clean slate. The calendar dates are yet unfilled and full of possibility. With an open mind, one might notice how the new year is like a new world born, in potential alone. Perhaps our challenge is to see that potential rise before us in gladness, awaiting our recognition.

"The Light has Come!" declares workbook lesson 75 of A Course in Miracles. This is a wonderful study to practice celebrating a new vision for the New Year. It speaks of seeing the world in a light which has come "to replace an unforgiven world that we once thought was real." I notice in reflecting upon New Year's celebrations from my past, especially my childhood, that we easily dared to dream of new beginnings, not only for ourselves but for the world. It was a step beyond hoping for peace or for the world to be a safer, more loving place. We somehow held a new vision of a forgiven world born again. Perhaps it was just innocent, childlike perception, but it was absolutely real to us every January.

Starting fresh, beginning again, requires that childlike innocence. To hold a place for new possibility means letting go of the past and having a willingness to see the present without condemnation. We can not know happiness while we cling to old hurts or miss rejoicing in the 'now'. When we carry the past into this day, we cast a shadow over our vision, not unlike a cataracted eye, thereby blocking God’s Light. We miss the opportunity to rise from the ashes of our past and recreate our potential-filled selves.

"Wherever the image of thought is set, there the power to create resides", wrote Ernest Holmes. The New Year’s traditions we routinely practice help set our thought. Something as simple as selecting a new calendar, innocently summons Universal Light to shine upon us - upon our innate belief in the power to recreate ourselves and to remember we are continually on a threshold of newness. Every moment can be a new beginning.

"Rejoice in the power of forgiveness to heal your sight completely", the lesson continues. This is the crucial point in how we let go of the past. It is through forgiving ourselves and the way in which we have perceived the world that our vision begins to shift. The world can hardly appear bleak while we are rejoicing in the beauty of the immediacy of things and people in our life. Daring to rejoice can seem challenging, but the lesson further admonishes: "Realize that your forgiveness entitles you to vision. Understand that the Holy Spirit never fails to give the gift of sight to the world." By calling on the power of Holy Spirit, we cannot fail. We are entitled to vision. The Universe awaits our choice! Will we choose to be born anew in 2003?

This month we have opportunity to create a vision for ourselves as grand and lovely as we can possibly imagine. The year is born again, born anew, and so are we. Let us celebrate a new vision, for The Light has Come! Celebrate in purest joy the beginning of your new vision! Namaste’ dear Ones.