By Mona AlvaradoFrazier /Guest contributor
Is December 21, 2012 the End or just a new winter solstice? Is it another Y2K or cause to start worrying? Just because the Mayan calendar ends on that date in 2012 doesn’t mean the world ceases to exist.
Besides running out of space, maybe their calendar maker died or the chisel was lost. Or the new calendar tumbled down the steps of the Chichén-Itzá? The reason for the calendar ending in 2012 may be as simple, and most probably, the beginning of a new b’ak’tun (cycle).
A pending doomsday can be a start of panic, worry and negativity we don’t need or it can be a start of a fresh cycle or a new dawn. A personal doomsday could come to us after a cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one, a near fatal-accident, a broken heart. All of these could be your personal doomsday or your personal wake-up call. It depends on your perspective.
How would you live your life if the Mayan calendar were correct? How would you live if you received crushing news from a doctor or a loved one? What would crystallize in your mind if you had one year left to live? After the shock wears off where would you begin? Many questions, I know. The answers make for movies like “The Bucket List” and “Last Holiday.”
Most of you, hopefully, would spend as much of your time as possible doing what’s most meaningful, joyful and fulfilling. You’d hug your kids more, visit your parent(s) more, try out new things, love deeply, sing, dance, laugh, or write letters for loved ones. Others might travel, quit their job and/or take a chance to do that thing they’ve wanted to do for several years (start or finish their novel).
Whichever choice we make, and it is a choice, would we live in the grace of the moment? There are multitudes of these moments in each hour, day, week, and month. Could we enjoy the flowers on a daily walk, touch bases with an old friend, watch the sky for one minute while the sun sets, turn off the television and go play with the kids or the dog? We can do this now. There is no reason to wait until a personal or speculative doomsday.
We only have this time, this one life, these strings of minutes to weave into patches of days and years, and create a comforting blanket to cover ourselves with when we pass on.
With the New Year upon us, and a new cycle, I hope you create the life you want and enjoy the moments.
— Mona AlvaradoFrazier is a writer and proprietor the BookNook in Downtown Sol, 328 W. Third St., Oxnard. To see more of her work, visit www.latinapen.blogspot.com