Preparing for the New Year by Rev. Mary Gelfand and Rev. Mark Gallup

Happy New Year!

In the northern hemisphere, we recently celebrated Winter Solstice – the time of year when the days begin to grow longer and the nights shorter as the Earth begins another orbit of the Sun.  In some cultures, the beginning of a  new year is determined by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.  Other cultures, such as Hebrew or Chinese, track the beginning of a new year through the lunar cycles.  In most of Western culture, the day we name as the beginning of a new year is not determined by the cycles of Sun or the Moon but instead by a seemingly arbitrary calendar devised by a Roman emperor and modified by a Renaissance pope.  Go figure.

Nonetheless, the turning of the New Year is a powerful time.  It is a good time to slow down, listen to our hearts, be in community, pray and create intentions for the coming seasons of our lives.  What do we need to forgive?  For what are we grateful?  What do we desire to bless for the coming year?

Last year we created a New Year’s worship service for our Unitarian Universalist church here in New England.  This simple service and ritual invites participants to spend a little time spiritually preparing for the coming new year.  If you wish to engage with this simple ritual from home you will need a small totem to interact with.  This could be a stone or a shell—a feather or a tree branch—a flower or a piece of jewelry.  You might also wish to light a candle.  Take a deep breath as we begin with Forgiveness.

Forgiveness

One of the things that I appreciate about the Jewish faith is that shortly after Rosh Hoshana—the  Jewish new year—they observe Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement.  This is a time to reflect on your thoughts and actions during the previous year, apologize, and ask forgiveness from Yahweh, from friends and family, and from professional associates for times when you may have harmed them in some way.  You may wish to forgive yourself for those times when you have sinned or failed to live up to your own expectations.  You could also offer forgiveness to those who have harmed you. 

I think this is a lovely way to begin the new year, with a clean slate and no residual guilt.  So we are beginning our new year preparations with the task of forgiveness.  Forgiveness  heals all wounds, all disconnection, all separation. If we really want to love and come together in community, we must learn how to forgive—a task I’ve always found very challenging.  If Love is centered in your personal values, then forgiveness is a practice you might want to adopt. 

Hold the totem you collected earlier in your hand as we reflect on forgiveness.  Look deeply into your very human heart and ask: Who are the people in my live that I need to forgive?  They could be family members, work associates, communities you try to live within.  Verbalize the names if you are comfortable doing so. Take three deep breaths and blow your energy of forgiveness into the totem.

What forgiveness do you need to offer to yourself? Are there times when you have fallen short of your own expectations?  Are there times when you‘ve mentally abused yourself for your failure to do something you felt you should do?   Recall those times.  Take three deep breaths.  Breathe your prayers for forgiveness and self-forgiveness from your heart into the totem in your hand and hold it close. 

Gratitude

Not so long ago, during this season when snow blankets the ground on long star-filled nights, our forebears had come to the end of another year.  The crops were in, the animals back from pasture, and food and fuel for the coming year were put by.  As they gathered in front of  the warm hearth fire or the wood stove, it seemed good to them to join together to offer thanks and gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon them by nature and by their own toil: for creature comforts, for the yield of the fields, for the love of family and community, and for all things which enliven the soul.

We live in very a different time and place, where many of our needs are met with a few strokes of a keyboard or a turned-up thermostat.  The state of the world is perilous and frightening and sometimes it is difficult to find things for which we feel gratitude, especially if we watch the news and social media regularly.  Nonetheless, many things have graced our lives in the past year and, if given the opportunity, feelings of gratitude will arise.  I have gratitude for the beauty of nature in our back yard, for the two cats who live with us, for reasonably good health.  At White Pine, a children’s program where I volunteer, we teach the value of gratitude and encourage the participants make gratitude a part of their daily practice.  You should too.  

Take a few moments while breathing slowly and deeply to contemplate gratitude.  Take your totem and hold it close to your heart.  Envision all that you are thankful for and, using your breath, allow the energy of your gratitude to flow into it.  Hold it close.  In the coming year, may you be grateful in every moment and pay it forward with love and hope.

Blessing

For many people, blessing is a loaded word, carrying as it does the connotation of a patriarchal seal of approval necessary to move forward in life.  When I was studying shamanism, I learned a different way to engage with blessings.  The ability to bless is one of the shaman’s most potent tools and it is a tool that can be used by anyone.  Many shamans claim that our function as human beings is to bless the world.  What exactly does that mean? 

To bless is to awaken—to become aware of the presence of the Spirit of Life flowing in and all around you.  To bless is to acknowledge the grand flow of Beingness that surrounds and supports you—the primal life force. 

Take a few deep breaths and breathe in an enhanced awareness of the fact that you are alive—that Spirit is flowing through you. 

Take another breath and expand your consciousness to see that the Spirit that is flowing in you is also flowing in everything and everyone around you.  Breathe into this awareness.

Now hold your totem and envision a part of the world that you would like to bless with an enhanced awareness of the Spirit of Life.  It could be your home, your favorite park, a beloved body of water, a place under environmental stress, a place torn by war.  Visualize that place and breathe your blessing for it from your heart and into your totem. 

Now envision a being that you would like to bless.  It could be a family member or friend, a beloved animal, an endangered species, a world leader.  Breathe your blessing for this being into your totem. 

And finally, envision a part of your life that you would like to bless with an enhanced awareness of the Spirit of Life.  Perhaps you would like to deepen your spiritual life, or improve your physical health, or build community or learn to paint.  Breathe your blessing for yourself into your totem.  Hold it close to your heart.

Keep your totem in some special place so you can go back to it to remind yourself of your engagement with forgiveness, gratitude, and blessings.  May we all be blessed in the coming year.