An Al Pacino New Year

Happy New Year! May you live this year with all of the guts of an Al Pacino movie-speech! May this be the year that you come to grips with Absolute Real­ity and not lie to your­self about what you find! Real­ize that courage is the virtue behind all other virtues. Get out of the com­mon denials of death and approach your spir­i­tual life like you were fight­ing for your life (BECAUSE YOU ARE). Be no one’s polit­i­cal pawn. Think for your­self. Choose your actions like they are the last ones you will make on this planet.

Have the aggres­sive hon­esty it takes to ignore the triv­ial. See pet­ti­ness for the evil that it truly is. Set­tle for noth­ing less than being your best self. There are no rewards worth hav­ing in medi­oc­rity. The ego will set­tle for applause. The soul hungers for per­fec­tion. Take the path less trav­eled by the soul and see if this year is not a bet­ter qual­ity year.

What­ever you do, please do not waste your time try­ing to con­trol oth­ers or dic­tate your ver­sion of real­ity to the world around you. They are not lis­ten­ing. They are too busy being lost in the life-trances of their own mak­ing. The story of your life is YOUR des­tiny. As you step across the great divide from this life to the next, it will dawn on you that you have no one to blame.

Courage works only in the present.