By Sanford Baran

It’s been unseasonably dry this past year in Colorado, compounding the ever-present drought now quite commonplace throughout the U.S. West. A few weeks ago, on a hot Boulder afternoon, I was riding my Honda 50cc motor scooter to my favorite coffee shop downtown when I saw an ominous bank of dark clouds gathering over the mountains. Afternoon thunderstorms are part of the summer rhythm here: the sky darkens, the wind rises, and suddenly the whole atmosphere seems charged with possibility.

by Sanford Baran

This is our first Tone of Life Zoom gathering in the year 2026. It’s wonderful to be together at the start of this very auspicious new year. I was straining to find some significance to the date 2026 or the numbers 2, 0, 2, and 6. Here’s something: If you add these numbers up, they sum to 10. And if you sum those up, the one and the zero, it reduces to the number “one.” So there you have it: 2026 is the year where it’s recognized that everything is one!

by Sanford Baran

We find ourselves living in interesting times! Who wants to be bored anyway?

On the one hand we may think that current circumstances are totally unprecedented, what with concerns about executive overreach, questions about constitutional boundaries, the routine breaking of governmental norms and unbridled bullying on the international stage. Yet history offers us perspective: down through the ages it’s estimated that there have been thousands of individuals who have assumed the mantle of tyranny. They’ve been kings and emperors, military dictators, elected officials who gradually seized more power, revolutionary leaders who betrayed their ideals, and party secretaries who ruled through fear. The ancient Greeks coined the term “tyrant” over 2,500 years ago, and every generation since has witnessed struggles with humanly devised systems of power, authority, and governance. 

by Sanford Baran

It’s wonderful to be together again; what an incredible opportunity to bring something of depth and substance to focus! Actually, such opportunity has always been with us here on earth, but maybe the difference now, in this moment, is that there’s a greater conscious awareness of what is ours to do, coupled with an appreciation of the rich and abundant provision, generously made available, enabling all manner of creative opportunities. From my perspective the potential for positive creative action has never been greater.