In this time of building fear of war and lack, in a season that is about light, love and rebirth, I don’t think there is a better time for me to repost this message on the bathroom mirror and my fridge door to remind me of my own power, light and intent…and I hope you all feel a call do the same.

I don’t care to throw my God given energy down the drain doing battle with the darkness when in truth, I believe that light will prevail…and where we put our intentions and energy gives power to that intent. I don’t pray for peace. I go on with my life as if PEACE IS ALREADY HERE. I don’t put my head in the sand and not look at the atrocities of the world…but I do choose to not give them any energy. I guess this is why I had a calling to share this decree I wrote with you. I hope " I DARE" does for you what it did for me personally.

If we don’t live what we believe, how is the world going to change? If we keep waiting for peace and love to prevail in this world before we feel we can be peaceful and loving, how will it come about? It is up to us to live the truth, to walk the path in a good way, and to be examples of peace — the calm in the storm. Serenity isn’t freedom from the storm, it is peace within the storm.

Now to drive the point further. A dear brother of mine, Steve Bhaerman, a.k.a. Swami Beyondananda, wrote this and it says it so well.

The Swami has said, "there are two kinds of mystics in the world, the optimistics and the pessimistics. Although pessimistics seem to be more in touch with ‘reality,’ optimistic are happier and live longer. It’s the pessimistic who’ve been crying, ‘The sky is falling, the sky is falling’ The optimistics simply smile and say, ‘No. It only looks that way because we are ascending.’"

Of course, for those people who read the news (not to mention those unfortunate enough to be in the news) this has not been an easy year to offer an optimystic reframe to loads of pessimistic evidence.

There’s an old saying, "It always seems darkest before it gets really dark," but we optimistics don’t buy it. Call me a hopeless "hopium" addict, but I say it can’t hurt to look on the bright side.

Sure, you can say we human beings have moved further down the path of self-destruction ... or you could say the Earth is ridding itself of its most virulent parasite. You can deplore the increased war, disease and starvation, or you can go, "Hey, population control without birth control or abortion!" You can worry over America’s turn toward totalitarianism or you can say, "Ah, simplicity! We’ve boiled the Bill of Rights down to just one You have the right to remain silent."

Seriously, we do have a choice. One of my favorite stories recently is about a Native American grandfather talking to his young grandson. He tells the boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is fear, greed and hatred. "Which wolf will win, grandfather?" asks the young boy. "Whichever one I feed," is the reply.

Every day, every moment, we have the choice to feed the wolf of love or the wolf of fear. If war is a necessary evil, that makes it all the more important to express peace as a necessary good. Whatever love, kindness, laughter, or generosity we create in our immediate vicinity radiates outward like a "perfect Ponzi scheme" where everyone wins and nobody loses.

"Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind. Did you think you were put here for something less?"

CHIEF ARVOL LOOKING HORSE