WHEN MY NEIGHBORS WENT “COUNTRY CRAZY”, I CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF THE NEW YEAR DIFFERENTLY

At the stroke of midnight, my country neighbors fired off all kinds of guns and fireworks, but my mighty conch of peace blasted and outlasted them all.

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This is the WEEKDAY edition of “THE DAWNING LIGHT” Newsletter # 1257

Our daily journal of inspiring, uplifting and 100 % positive Love writing

STILL MOUNTAIN CHRONICLES SECTION # 82 Stories by Chinmayan about our life in pursuit of simple living, our own spiritual path and our service to the world in a small meditation center in the mountains of Northern California

Written by Chinmayan in prayerful celebration of this brand new year!

I would love to hear your response to this story in the comments!

All images in this story courtesy of Pixabay

WHEN MY NEIGHBORS WENT “COUNTRY CRAZY”, I CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF THE NEW YEAR DIFFERENTLY

At the stroke of midnight, my country neighbors fired off all kinds of guns and fireworks, but my mighty conch of peace blasted and outlasted them all….

It Is A Perfect New Year’s Day

It is a bright, baby blue sky and perfect New Year’s Day here on Still Mountain.

I am taking it as a blessing to have this beautiful day be our first day of the New Year.

Last night, as the minutes crawled towards midnight, I was on the front porch of our meditation center getting ready to greet the birth of 2024 as we have for many years. 

We live in a high mountain valley on the outskirts of a small town where there are more pick up trucks than cars.

It’s a rural area of country folk, many from families that have been here for generations.  They have their own traditions for celebrating New Years, while I have always greeted the New Year differently.

How We Greeted The Birth Of The New Year In Different Ways

Many of them were out in the night on their porches or yards, getting ready to go “country crazy”to mark the end of the old year in dramatic fashion.

While I cradled a hand carved conch shell from India and got ready to blow its loud wailing clarion call across the valley, they were loading guns of all kinds and calibers with ammunition and setting up bottle rockets, and fireworks of every kind in their yard.

I have stood on this very porch with this magical conch to greet every new year for nearly thirty years…

There were a few random shots fired around the valley and a few firecrackers exploded as the minutes ticked down to….

Midnight…

Suddenly the night was rumbling and flashing from many guns being fired and a sky full of fireworks exploding with a bang showering down rainbow colors. 

It was an absolutely amazing display of exuberance to welcome the new year with its new hopes and new possibilities.

All around us and all over this big valley, our neighbors were shooting their pistols, rifles, shot guns and semi automatic weapons into the air. 

As always, I was shocked to be hearing so many guns going off for a ten minute symphony of gun shots…

Suddenly, It Sounded and Felt Like We Were In A War Zone

It was so loud with gun fire from all over the valley that it sounded like a firefight between two armies.

I countered all of the fears that hearing gunshots brings up for me by raising the mighty conch to my lips and, while expressing all the love in my heart and prayers and hopes for a better world, sent blast after blast of its penetrating call into the night.

As I got warmed up and totally focused in the moment, I was able to blow harder and longer so that the conch’s wailing went out across the valley and came back to me as sweet echoes…

I stayed on the porch until the last shot was fired and then gave one last long loud blast of celebration and invocation before retreating for prayer and meditation.

Though my neighbors had let lose with a storm of gunshots fired into the night sky, my mighty conch shell of peace blasted and outlasted them all. 

Its wailing song was the last sound rising to fill the night before silence returned. 

I wished all my neighbors a great year and a good night as thousands of frogs in the creeks around us took up their comforting love calls to each other again.

I am grateful to be living in the deep country and ready as I can be for whatever this new year brings.

Image copyright Nicola Smith for Inner Resource Institute 2024

Here is my message that I published in Substack NOTES just a few minutes before the end of 2024…

RIDING TSUNAMIS OF CHALLENGE and CHANGE IN THE NEW YEAR!

As we count down the minutes towards the end of 2024, I am feeling that bittersweet sense of gratitude for this year which was one of the most challenging and rewarding of our lives.

It has been a long hard road to get to this moment of reviewing the incredible blessings, lessons and breakthroughs of this “old” year which both strained us and opened our eyes to new possibilities.

Tonight, I feel like someone standing on a white sand beach I love dearly while watching a tsunami hundreds of feet high racing towards us.

It seems unstoppable and scary as hell in its sheer crazy making power as it is about to crash down on all of us!

I think we all feel that 2025 will be a time of being constantly challenged in ways that we don’t want or like that may cause tremendous suffering…and yet, I remind myself that my invincible POSITIVE ATTITUDE and loving determination are my shield and my path for navigating through troubled waters.

I am a veteran of many heartbreaks and hard times, so I KNOW to my bones that we can and we will greet whatever is coming and use it to grow and come to ever greater personal power.

That is how we have not just survived but used tumultuous times to become “the best things that have ever happened to us.”

With a lifetime of facing and honestly working through terrible times, like a surfer who has ridden many stormy waves, I believe that the new year may test us to our limits, but I know we will ride the crest of the roller coaster waves to victory.

I am grateful for all of you are surfing along with me…I know I am not alone, but heart connected to all of you as we face this new year together!

Thank you dear ones…let’s keep on standing for LOVE and GOODNESS and Peace….and not let anyone or anything knock us down!

Lovingly, Chinmayan

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