first shared via facebook post: January 1, 2019, but still quite relevant here at 2021
The start of the new year.
We celebrate it. Mark it with countdowns, fireworks, champagne, promises.
But really, any and every day are the start of a new year.
Each and every day is the start of your next year.
I’d like to mark December 1, 2018, one month ago today, as the start of an important new year. December 1, we were in Masai Mara, nearing the end of our first retreat and safari. We headed out of camp with the sunrise as we did each day and were welcomed with the sights and sounds of the Mara. This particular 1st was a special one, with all of the big cats and other animals who shared their day with us, and with our expanding human tribe.
We watched a leopard just miss out on her breakfast hunt, and climb a tree to rest and prepare to hunt again later. We watched a lion pride enjoying their breakfast in the bush, and jockeying for who gets to eat when. We watched Amani, a mama cheetah, and her three young cubs enjoy their fill of her breakfast kill, watching out for but not having to fend off hyenas or vultures. We sang Elton John’s “Saturday” song as we made our way through the open plains. Seeing any of these big cats on a safari is special, but seeing all three big cats this same morning was truly miraculous.
Our bush breakfast was by the Narok river, with hippos below and blue balled monkeys above (trying to steal our food). And THE best guides in the Mara, Joash, Moses and Ntuala, joined our group coaching circle and gifted us with their stories of what the animals have taught them, as we expanded our own human pride to these beautiful souls.
I’ve believed and taught for years that we create the future through our conversations.
The ones we have with others, and with ourselves, and the ones we choose not to have at all … and sometimes wish we did..
This day marked the beauty of what can be created through unexpected conversations. As our chats in the safari trucks expanded and deepened to what we were seeing and wondering as we watched, one particular morning game drive with a lioness and her cubs opened the door for Joash to share some of his story and his heart with us. And we are all better because of it.
Before they joined our circle, we had another little conversation. Ntuala asked what it was we were going to do, and I talked our guides through our check-in, reflection, and then said I’d turn it over to Joash, and after that, “who knows what happens next? We will have to wait and see.” To which they all laughed and said that’s what it’s like for them every day on a game drive.
“As much as we want to think as humans that we know what’s going to happen and we are in control on any given day, we aren’t. We plan, but when we get to any given moment, we have to wait and see. ”
Then Ntuala thanked me, taking about how often you are told to go to a meeting without knowing what it’s about or why you’re there. Reminding me that we are all the same, whether our offices are in a skyscraper, on snow, a mine, or in a safari truck, and why I love working with people all over the world in all different settings.
So, as I reflect here on New Year’s Day, back to this special December 1st day, I’m thinking about conversations and asking myself:
What’s the next conversation you need to have, with yourself or with someone else, to create your future?
What’s the future you could be missing because you’re in your own head (second guessing something already past or worrying about something to come), rather than right here in the present?
May we all find and be more present in our days, meetings and moments in 2019, trusting ourselves and those we’re with to create even better futures together through the conversations we choose to be in.
And by the way, December 1 gave us another gift. We ended our afternoon game drive with Romi, one of our favorite leopards, who we first met just outside Governors Camp on our visit three years ago. I’m glad she came back and showed herself again. It’s magical and rare to start and end your day with leopards. I’m not quite sure what it means, but I know it’s special and that magic is something I want to carry into my days this year.
Because every day can be magical, if we look for it.
Photos courtesy of Stuart Kerr