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This month Millennium Fever is building to frantic pitch. After all, how often do we see the beginning of a new year, decade, century, and millennium? And how often do we face massive predictions that the world as we know it is going to fall apart before our eyes because of two faulty digits on our world-controlling computers? Wow, do we have a lot on our plate!
I invite you now to step back, take a deep breath, and listen to some reason. As millions, perhaps billions of people are scurrying about trying to position themselves in the most auspicious site to ring in the new year, some armed with party hats and others with survival gear, I wish to offer you a gentle vision of the new year, one that is not frenzied and debilitating, but joyful, empowering, and even inviting.
Let us begin with a truth that you may find disturbing, yet ultimately liberating: We made it all up. From where God sits, there is nothing particularly special or unique about the clock striking midnight on December 31, 1999. This moment, in the Big Picture, has as much significance as your car odometer moving from 1999 to 2000. You may wish to toot your horn or say to your passenger, "Look, the odometer is turning to 2000." Beyond that, whatever you make of it is up to you.
The idea of reaching 2000 is not cosmic or spiritual-it is cultural and religious. At midnight on December 31, while we are whooping it up (or breaking out the dried beans), billions of people on the planet will belong to cultural and religious traditions that swear it is entirely another time. In the Jewish calendar, the year is 5760; the Buddhists are living in 2544; in Islam, it is 1420; the Mayan calendar calls it 5119; the Chinese designate this as the year of the Dragon; and if we go by the actual birth of Jesus, it is 2004-so the millennium kickoff may have already come and gone, and we are four years behind schedule with our festivities!
So we return to the Course in Miracles teaching that "everything I see has only the meaning I have given it." As we apply this truth to the turn of the millennium and Y2K, we can see why those who are captured in the jaws of fear see it as a coming disaster; those motivated by money discover an easy way to capitalize; those who thrive on drama face a major crisis; those who have been wishing and hoping for the downfall of evil society, hold proof that they were right along; while those who find beauty in change and faith in well-being, recognize an opportunity to celebrate in a big way. (A friend of mine gave up being an atheist because there weren't enough holidays.)
I do not mean to throw a damper on the party. To the contrary, my intention is to defuse the hysteria, demystify the hype, and replace the source of our power where it belongs: not in a calendar or the skills of computer programmers, but in our own minds, hearts, and hands.
It can be a wonderful fulcrum for us to mark the turning point at which we leave the old and unwanted behind, and step forward into the new and more desirable. It can be a moment for us to decide what we want to leave back in the 20th century, and what we want to take into the 21st. It can be the beginning of a new life with new values and new results, should we make it so. But not because the calendar, stars, or computers commanded it-because we make is so with our holy minds.
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Alan Cohen is the author of 14 popular inspirational books including the award winning A Deep Breath of Life. To order Alan's new book Happily Even After or request a free catalog of Alan's books, tapes, and seminar schedule, write to Hay House, P.O. Box 5100, Carlsbad, CA 92018 or call 1-800-462-3013. For info on Alan's Mastery Training in Hawaii, contact 455-A Kukuna Road, Haiku, HI 96708, (800) 568-3079. Visit Alan's website at www.alancohen.com.
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