Closing 2014

Here are some simple rituals for closing out your year and moving into the next one with clarity and freedom. Modify these in whatever way works for you. If you have other practices that hold more significance, please consider engaging with those instead.

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Light a candle while you ponder the year. When you have identified some things you would prefer to let go this next year, blow out the candle in trust that you will do so.

Walk a labyrinth; moving toward the center focus on 2014, and spiraling back out shift your focus to your offerings to the world for 2015.

Write down something that has been part of this past year but which no longer serves you, your life, and those around you. When you feel ready, tear up the paper and burn, scatter, bury, set afloat, compost, or recycle those old, unneeded bits.

Write a journal entry that reviews your past year in regard to body, emotion, mind and spirit.

Create an altar. An “altar” can be as basic as placing a few meaningful objects on a special table, window sill, or the corner of your desk. Add a candle, a stick of incense, a pretty lamp, or a string of lights.

Take a walk or short hike. Like the labyrinth ritual, spend the first half reflecting on what has happened in your life over the past year. During the final stretch, spend some moments taking inventory of those aspects of your life you want to begin shedding in the year to come; take note, too, of those which you would prefer to augment in your life.

Go to a natural place (beach, forest, park, meadow, desert…) and build a cairn, a stone pile. With each of four stones, reflect on the four directions of your life: body, emotion, mind, spirit.

Make a drawing, collage, painting that represents key aspects of your past year. Share the completed piece with somebody else. (You need not be an artist to do this one! Stick figures, hunks of torn paper and glue, lumps of paint on the page can be as useful and inspiring as something more “refined”.)

Compile a list of the major events of your 2014. Sit with this for a while and then group them into categories that seem meaningful to you (e.g. blessings/gratitude or challenges/areas for growth).

Clean up and rearrange your existing altar, removing items that you do not want to “carry” into this coming year. Or do this with your desk or workspace at home.

Dedicate a daily activity this weekend to the year 2014. As you hike, walk, bike, sort papers, take out the recycling, dismantle the holiday decorations, swim, talk with a trusted friend or family member, or just sit in your favorite place in your home (with a favorite hot beverage in hand), ponder/reflect/ruminate on the year. See what emerges.

Gather enough stones so that you have one for each aspect of 2014 with which you feel done, complete, worn out, used up, or whose use has run its course in your life. With gentle meditation, hold each stone for a minute before tossing it into the nearest water body (ocean, lake, pond, rain puddle). You can modify this activity by using a bowl of water and dropping the stones in one by one.

Gather sticks, branches, tree boughs, pine cones, fallen leaves, rocks, or whatever other natural items you can find in abundance in your area. With intention, place them one by one into a particular shape that symbolizes 2014 for you (heart, square, circle, spiral, line, peace sign, rhombus, infinity sign, yin yang…get clever!). Do this activity outside. You can let the earth reclaim these items when you are ready (either by disbursing the heavier items yourself, or by allowing the elements to scatter or decompose them for you).

Re-pot a favorite plant that needs attention. Enjoy the feeling of the soil on your hands; do the work without gloves or gardening implements.

Consider questions which will help you reflect on the past year, those explorations which hold juice, integrity, real interest for the world and all beings. Perhaps ask: How can I look at the past year in terms of offerings to others out of a fullness of self? Or, In what ways did I serve others through a movement toward compassion? Or, In what ways was the world more open, whole, balanced, loving as I walked through it?

All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2014 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."