It is the time for beginnings…2011 but also the time for letting go and remembering the way we were. The first part of a new beginning is letting go of all that is holding us back. So many of us face the same challenges year after year for a lifetime because we do not let go of the way we were.
My family practices a ritual near New Year’s Eve which we call the Burning Bowl and White Stone Ceremony. It is simply a time to recall the previous year determining what we wish to let go of that no longer serves a purpose in our lives…attitudes, feelings, possessions, activities, people, lifestyles and all the things that are taking up space. We make a written list which we then put into the fire of the burning bowl.
The ceremony is done by candlelight in silence because this is a very private matter which defines who we are. The symbolic gesture of burning creates a vacuum in our core and prepares us to fill the vacuum with those things which serve the purpose of our lives.
At this point we write down all the good which we seek to fill the vacuum on a card which we put into an envelope with our name and the year on it. This serves as our action plan foundation for the year and also a reminder should go back into the past to relive the way we were. Memories may be beautiful and yet…what’s too painful to remember we simply choose to forget.
The White Stone comes from Revelations 2:17 which says, “To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. ”
Over the years, I have collected many White Stones and each on has been a source of peace and remembering through the year what my purpose is and the way we were is not the way we are today.
In the last week of the year, I take time to revisit the way we were knowing that we simply were the way we knew how to be. I remember the smiles and laughter we gave to one another because I have long forgiveness myself and all others for the pain. Wisdom comes in letting go of all except love and laughter and knowing that the past can not be recreated in the present.
The way that I re-visit the past is with music and a glass of wine on a cold winter night…remembering February 14, 1989 spending the night in a bar in El Cajon with Dr. Hook, Ray Sawyer...the many nights driving across the country with Rod Stewart on the tape player…Bonaire in the Spring…Aaron Neville in Las Vegas and through the years…riding on the back of a motorcycle with my arms around my love?…was it all so simple then or has time re-written every line? Would I go back? Regrets? No…life is the present.
My only wish is to live today in such a way as to smile in future times remembering The Way We Were and keep Asking the Questions. I am ready for another Life adventure…Road Trip!
Love, Light & Lots of Laughter…Joa
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