Letting Go to Make Room for New

Fin de Año 2013

Wow! Well, the end of the year is upon us and we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for and also much to let go of and leave in the past. I'm excited about all the possibilities to come in 2014!

I participated for the 4th time in the Burning Bowl Ceremony at Seattle Unity on Sunday. This ceremony gives us an opportunity to literally see the things we want to release from the previous year burn up in flames. It has been a very powerful and cleansing process for me and I am very grateful to my friend, Julie for taking me to my first Burning Bowl in 2010. 

This process also reminds me of the Ecuadorian New Year's tradition of burning paper mâché lifesize dolls called "añoviejos" or "old years" that represent all that you'd like to let go of from last year at midnight. 

This year after I burned my "añoviejo" at Unity, I was given a card with a word and affirmation for the new year. My word was "zeal," which goes very nicely with my next creative project for the month of January. My card said that "I am energized by the power of God's or the Divine presence in my life this day. My enthusiasm comes from the deep well of God Love or Divine Love that is the source of all life. My joy is contagious and I shine my light in the world." I just love this as a point of focus to start this new year off on a positive and light foot! 

Thanks to the awesome and inspiring project of my creative friend, Angie, I'm going to participate in Fun-A-Day this January. Each day in January I will either:

*Make a pair of earrings

*Take nature photos

*Dance, or

*Write.

And I will record my creative endeavors here on this blog. So really for me, it will be a blog-a-day for the month of January. I think positive habit-forming motivation like this will really help with this SAD weather! And I think it will also be a great start for my very own Happiness Project! My mom gave me The Happiness Project for Christmas and since then I've been feeling inspired to start my own project to focus on increasing happiness in our lives.

My hope is also to start a habit of being creative everyday and choosing happy, joyful activities over vegging out and feeling SAD from the dreary winter. I'm looking forward to it! Maybe you'd like to join me?

Wishing us all the freedom of New Year's and a 2014 filled with joy, courage and inner peace!