End of Year 2008

Affirmation: I release in to the hands and heart of Spirit all my unfinished dreams from this past year.

I am writing in my current culture to folks of mostly Northern European stock born and raised in the Western Hemisphere, but these ideas are universal. Each conscious person begins their year with certain hopes and dreams for themselves and their families, and at the end of the year some of those hope have been dashed and some of those dreams have not come true.
As the next year approaches, each of us, wittingly or unwittingly recreates a new set of expectations for our upcoming year. This cycle; the life, death, rebirth cycle happens all around us. Without ceasing, it occurs all over the world in nature and in human enterprise and in our hearts and lives.

For those of us in the US, there is this short window between the end of the Christmas Season and the beginning of the New Year, and this post is targeted at this period. In the deepest recesses of our human consciousness, in our DNA perhaps, we know that this dark and cold time of year is for introspection and reflection. Yet, so many people have filled this window with holiday travel (and what a terrible time to travel with ugly road conditions and storm warnings, air port closures and flight delays and so forth), with returning certain Christmas presents or shopping at after Christmas sales with gift cards they received, watching non stop football, and other distractions. Then, on New Years Eve, they party and get drunk and begin the year hung over, exhausted and perhaps more deeply in debt.

Here is a possible alternative for those of us on the Spiritual Path.

Instead of consumption, focus on release.

As I suggested above, almost all of us have some hopes and dreams from the prior year that did not materialize the way we wanted them to. So, after Christmas take a little break from the creating and acquiring mode and embrace that which you lost. Release those physical things we wanted for ourselves that did not show up. Let go of interpersonal hurts and slights that we might have tried to bury in the flurry of holiday business. Surrender those ideas and strategies we had for self improvement.

This process of completing our years by letting go allows us to not carry forward into our next season, the New Year, our unfinished business from the prior year. Unfinished business can often be a subtle drain on our energy and enthusiasm when we have not completed with it by acknowledging its existence and releasing it. If we are yearning for something that did not manifest, then pretending that our hopes were not met dampens the very yearning that pulls it into creation. If we are hurting from a personal loss or set back, this is the time to acknowledge the loss fully, feel the angst of our suffering and release it to the Divine Mystery. If we have betrayed ourselves or others, this is the time to atone for our mistake by admitting its impact and by making amends when appropriate.

Taking the time for this window of release will open up deeper and more profound possibilities as the next year unfolds. One way to ritualize this process is called a Burning Bowl. We take time in mediation to write down each of our losses, disappointments and hurts on a sheet of paper or a 3x5 index card. We then offer them up in prayer and release by lighting each card on fire. As the card with our hurts is burning, we sacredly place them into an open clay bowl- signifying their release from our control as well as our willingness to let them die. As the smoke from the card rises, we see it carrying with it our pain to the heavens and we can relax knowing that we are opening up for “this or something better”.