“Let our New Year’s resolution be this:

We will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.”

 ~ Goran Persson, former prime minister of Sweden

As I gather my thoughts to write this 12^th letter of the year to you, it is difficult to pull together thoughts of inspiration to wish you a wonderful December. The holidays bring the joy of the season and the experience of giving and love. Yet, when I look around me I see many people struggling with serious illness and other stressful life situations. On a larger scale, it is a complicated and conflicted world in which we live, and global peace is still our collective dream.

So I will share with you a heartfelt sentiment I received from my friend and colleague, Peggy Malecki, Natural Awakenings Chicago Publisher. This message is simple and yet oh-so-challenging. Find peace, make peace, keep peace. In your heart. In your actions. In your morning intention when you wake. In what you know to be true in your heart as you drift to sleep.

Make peace and love the central themes of how you interact with your family, your children, the pushy person at the store and the rude driver in the other car who cuts you off. Do this because we need each and every one of us together to build collective peace, love and unity—this is a grassroots action we can all become active in every day. Today and always, no phrase rings truer than the traditional message of the season: “On Earth peace, and goodwill to all.”

From everyone here in our Natural Awakenings family to you and those you hold dear, we wish you every joy this holiday season. May you find the opportunities to celebrate and find inspiration in the little pleasures of the season; may you find moments of blissful inner stillness; may you find comfort from suffering; and may you be surrounded in love and kindness.

Happy holidays! And many blessings for love and success in the new year.

Kris Urquhart, Publisher