Et In Terra Pax

A few hours left in 2017 as I’m sitting on the skyline in San Francisco looking across to the Coit Tower with the pulsing light Alcatraz breaking the darkness.  In keeping with one of my oldest traditions, the last act of the year is to reflect on the year passed and pause to acknowledge those who lit the steps that marked the days of my journey.  This year’s reflections will include both the individuals who lit my path along with the moments of wisdom that infused the passing of my days.

This was a year of transfiguration.  The year dawned in the company of dear friends in Melbourne Australia who committed on New Year’s Eve at the stroke of midnight to daily offer an acknowledgment of gratitude for life each day of 2017.  The Living Abundantly community kept its promise!  And my year is the better for it!  I’ve spent years advocating for the willful and intentional expression of gratitude in all the enterprises in which I’ve been engaged – not some sort of silent reflection but an explicit, unambiguous, and communicated indication that the people and places in our lives are acknowledged for the contribution they make to our existence.  Experiencing a full year of this type of community enriched my life and all that I engaged.

This was a year of mortality.  I witnessed the paradox of 5 deaths.  Each involved people or situations which, at the beginning of the year, I would have counted as dear friends or associated therewith.  Two lives came to an end (within weeks of each other).  While I miss their fellowship, I ceaselessly smile when I think of them.  Two friendships died.  In truth, whether they actually died this year or whether they never existed in the manner to which I aspired I may never know.  And my practice of reckless generosity without reciprocal agreement on the distinction between granting and being taken for granted died.  This year taught me that I can handle the organic transition of life – the actual death of friends – far more easily than living with the fact that someone or something that I loved and valued is no longer vital in life! 

This year I was the beneficiary of notable luminaries in Melbourne – Michael Roux and his family, Serdar Baycan and Elizabeth Grigg, and Mark Nebreda – all who warmly embraced the transformative thinking that I infused into the days of the year.  In the vicissitudes of Australian corporate and political intrigue, these individuals were constant navigators in the fog!

This year I was the beneficiary of the growing fraternity of Charles Way and John Plunkett who worked tirelessly to advance the Innovation Alpha investment platform in the face of relentless complacency.  Together with the team at M·CAM International and CNBC, we continued to forge an unshakable advantage in a market blinded by consensus.

I had the honor of working (and cycling) with Nicolas Wales – my dear friend and colleague who defined for me the essence of both of those words in beautiful and meaningful ways.

I had the honor of standing next to my son Zachary when I took my first tentative steps into making 2017 the year that I stood for the quality of my life when I married Kim.  The blessing of his presence in that moment will stand head and shoulders above most of life’s accomplishments.    

Above all, this passing year was my first that passes in peace.  Until this moment, New Years marked an aspirational initiation – a sense of possibility for the coming of the New and Different.  But thanks to my wife, my love, and my partner Kim Martin, I come to the close of this year in complete peace.  And ironically, it is this acknowledgement and benediction that lifts my spirits for the dawning of 2018.  I’m looking into a year in which I will live each moment with all those who share a sense of peace, with those who emanate explicit and persistent gratitude, and those who see the infinitely orthogonal potential borne of a relentless celebration of that which IS.  Happy and Prosperous New Year to All!

MMXVII