Which questions can we ask to reflect on 2022—inquiries that hold juice, integrity, real interest for the world and all beings?
Which questions can we seek to explore during 2023—inquiries that guide us to live more deeply, love more truly, discover more richly?
How can we make a stab at:
questions that aim toward expansiveness,
questions that are from our depths;
questions that place us in the center of all Life, not the just the small center of our own small, disconnected life; and
questions that call us to service and compassion?
That is the quality of reflective question we can seek, explore, as this 2022 marker comes to a close and we feel ourselves on the edge of 2023.
May we find the courage to live into the questions, knowing that the only “answers” we can truly offer are those compassionate acts that sprout from the roots of our lighted souls.
Most years I post reminders of the many ways we can review the year that is closing and hold with a wide loving embrace the one into which we are about to step.
Here’s a distilled list:
Light a candle. Ponder the year past. Blow out the candle.
Walk a labyrinth: toward the center for 2022, back to the outside for 2023.
Journal, list, write about the major shifts in your life this year.
Build a nature altar: stones of one color for 2022, stones of a different color for 2023.
Create something meaningful to honor one year gone, another year ushering in: poetry, painting, story, weaving, drawing, splashes of color across a page…
Take a walk or hike, repot a houseplant, add self-care into your daily schedule…
Dedicate one activity over the holiday weekend to 2022; dedicate another activity to 2023.
Deciding on a short intention to carry through the coming year is a simple way to hold us steady on our path even as the unexpected—the as-yet unknown—blessings and challenges of 2023 arrive on our doorsteps throughout the year. I like to write down my intention and place it someplace I see every day.
No matter how you honor the passing of one year and the entry into the next, I send to you goodwill, strength, and peace.
(Excerpted and modified from past end-of-year blog posts.)
