I’ve thought for a while what exactly I am looking forward to this next year….Beyond making it through the end of the world, as anticipated by so many and understood by so few, I am ready for the entry of a new age.  Because that is what I think the Mayans were really talking about.  With the end of 2012, an era ended and with 2013, a new age began.  I really hope it is one that leads us toward greater enlightenment.  As I look back on the year, it was full of upheaval…and I don’t always thing we handled it as well as we should have.  Bad things happened, from the wrath of mother nature, the wrath of nations…to the wrath of individuals.  It is up to us, the everyday folk, to make sense of it and set the tone for how we want to walk into the future.  We can let all those bad things take hold of our lives, or we can make a conscious decision to not let the few control the many.  I think we need to infuse our everyday lives with the gentle kindness that flows most naturally from almost everyone I know and let it dissipate the fear that threatens our future.  Let 2013 bring out the best of us so that the burden that has been imposed on so many won’t crush them or deprive them of hope.  My new prayer for the year is: “I pray for a miracle today for the one who needs it the most, so their lives may be transformed and in so doing will transform others.”   Here’s to a New Age!