Christmas is done, and I have this urge to take down all of the decorations and put the tree out for recycling. I am interested in how many people I have heard express the same sentiment. I am ready to move forward with my life!
2009 has been a banner year for hard lessons, hasn’t it? Between relationships falling apart, health crises, job changes, geographical moves, and all of those INTERAL moves we’ve been making, 2009 was the year that rocked and rolled all night long. Many of us woke up to a new reality within ourselves, and noticed that the world looked different. It is amazing to look back and see all of the changes, and what a different land we live in now than just one year ago.
For me, this reflection is cause for celebration, and is done for the purpose of patting me on the back because I got through it (sometimes with grace, and sometimes NOT). Another purpose of this reflection is to make sure I have given a respectful nod to the forces of the universe that were conspiring to help me learn something.
In ceremonial work we know it is important to thank what has been before letting it go, incorporating the lessons it has brought us…2009 has been a year FULL of learning opportunities for us. It is kind and respectful to say thank you, just as we were taught in kindergarten. You know how it feels to be properly thanked…it feels like acknowledgment. This is a good practice, and one we frequently forget when we feel victim of some larger doing. But the gift to us in remembering to thank even the hard stuff for what it brought to us is that it helps us incorporate the lessons into our psyche and breathe that hard-won wisdom into our lives.
I am spending some time making a list this week of lessons I have learned; I think I will make some art about it, too. My friend Elizabeth Barbour and I are also hosting a retreat on New Year’s Day to take some women on a journey to see what they are becoming, to honor what has passed and allow the new butterfly to emerge in 2010. We’ll be making collages to ground our inner visions, and to hold those intentions for the entire year. The larger energy is ripe for this self examination. Can’t you feel it? 2010 is truly a year to begin again.
But if you can’t make the retreat, held in Tallahassee FL, you can still honor New Year’s Day intentionally and ceremonially. Here are some suggestions:
Licia’s New Year’s Rituals:
- This week, sit quietly with your thoughts. Ask yourself these questions, and journal about what you discover.
- What were some life lessons taught to you this year?
- Who/what were the teachers?
- What wisdom have you gained?
- Fully look these lessons in the eye…feel them stretch throughout your body and consciousness….breathe them through you. These lessons are part of you, if you will let them be. You can live a more authentic life because of them.
- Fully acknowledge the teachers that brought these lessons to you…whether they be people, circumstances, spirits, elements of nature….whatever and whoever they were, they gave you a gift. Thank them.
- On New Year’s Day, honor this new beginning by setting aside time to create something new to look forward into the year. I meditate, journal and make a collage that I can display in my workspace. Here are some questions I ask myself in order to make this time special and meaningful for the new cycle:
- Who am I, really? Who is the me that has been uncovered, scrubbed clean, by this past year’s events? Who is the me that has emerged from the cocoon of my becoming?
- What does my heart, my soul want to do, to say?
- How will I live as the truth of who I am this year? How will I live my life differently because of what I have learned?
- What does my heart truly want to offer humanity? How can I show up in this world that is experiencing so many changes in a way that supports the goodness in this world?
I find these activities to be soooooo supportive to ending and beginning a cycle in a more intentional and loving way. Taking the time to meaningfully take inventory and express my thanks as the old cycle ends helps me to welcome the new cycle in with fresh, eager and open arms. I hope that you will give this gift to yourself as well!
