Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

These are challenging times and here’s the test of these times: Do we allow our contentment, our joy, to be determined by outer circumstances only?

On a recent trip which took me through Los Angeles International Airport, the Pharrell Williams’ song “Happy” played while I was at the boarding gate. It is a contagious piece of music and a group of us broke into spontaneous dance. It was the medicine of the moment. During the flight I thought about what it is to experience happiness or contentment in harsh times.

“The world is as beautiful as it ever was. It is changing, but then it always has. This is a good time to change and remain beautiful with it.”

This quote from Alice Walker has been lying on my desk for about a week. Reading her book “We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness” is worth your time.

It’s the beginning of a new year, at least according to the Gregorian calendar and with that comes an almost compulsive need to make “resolutions”.

I do not engage in resolutions nor do I work with the usual intention setting, mind maps, vision boards, or other similar processes because they interfere with the natural flow of my creativity.

Times of transition are upon us and they will be for some time to come. Times of transition such as we are experiencing are not meant to be comfortable; they are chaotic, dangerous and workable.

These times are workable. What do I mean by that?

I used to think “workable” meant a happy ending, everyone gets what they want and everything is resolved.