New Year's Eve

Tonight is New Year's Eve - a big night for many people. W and I are traveling north to see family for the New year's weekend, as has been our tradition for a few years now (except for last year when we sheltered at home!)

Agenda today:

1. Kwanzaa principles

2. Christmas retreat

3. Becoming Rooted reading

4. Celebration and synergy goals for 2022

5. Make noise!
1. Kwanzaa principles:
The sixth day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to the principle of Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah), which is creativity. I can use my creative energies to build a beautiful and vibrant home and community.

2. Christmas retreat:

I'm finishing up the work of setting goals and resolutions for the New Year, focusing on my priorities, which are Love, Home, Health, Service, Learning, Creativity, Life Purpose, and Celebration. I came up with this list of priorities last year as a way to give my daily action more focus. 

It has been so restful to know which activities truly matter most to me, and how to best spend my time. I just plan on doing one or two things in each of these categories, and everything else I fit in around the side!

Today I'm honoring celebration:

How can I remember to celebrate each day as a sacred gift, with attention on Love, Truth, and Creation? How do my celebrations become an expression of my life and my inner cycles and seasons? 

What is my personal sacred calendar? How do I become indigenous to the place I live, and connect deeply with the unique cycles of the seasons? 

How can I celebrate the seasons and transitions of life with simplicity, creativity, and integrity? How can I express my love of folk customs, crafts, ceremony, and foods and without practicing appropriation?  

How can I remember to lighten up and be spontaneous? How can I share my celebrations better with family and friends?

3. Celebration reading:

"THE SACRED YEAR is based on the annual cycle of the sun, the cycles of the moon, and the way these cycles are reflected in changes in weather and patterns of growth on the planet earth. The civil year is an arbitrary way to order the days that is convenient for governments, business, landlords, etc. The sacred year is much more closely tied to actual experience.

 

THE BEGINNING POINT
Because the year is a circle, the beginning point could be chosen anywhere, any festival is an occasion for letting go of old behaviors that don’t serve you, and creating visions for the future. In addition, each holiday is a hologram of the whole cycle, seen from a particular aspect. 

 

The symbolic meaning of a holiday comes from the common practice of associating the elements of different cycles. For example, the four seasons of the year can be matched to the four quarters of the day, the four directions, the four elements, each of which will suggest themes, colors, objects, etc.~ Neskaya Movement Arts Center 

4. Celebration goals for 2022:

My theme for today is celebration. Goals for celebration might be to connect to the cycles of the seasons, share traditions, or to explore and develop my playful and imaginative qualities.

My ideas for celebration goals so far:

1. Practice daily, weekly, and monthly cycles of reverence for the Earth and Creation.
2. Write about my sacred calendar, and my spiritual path as an Earth Quaker.
3. Define and develop personal symbolism, crafts, ceremonies, and traditions that honor my heritage and my Quaker beliefs.
4. Plan and organize shared celebrations with my family and friends.

5. Make noise: 

Noise-making is considered an effective way to drive off the spirits of the old year and awaken the sleeping new year. We will gather horns, bells, pots, pans, and whistles, throw open the door at midnight, count down the final seconds of the old year, then let loose with whoops and cheers, bangs and toots, to welcome in the New Year.