Good morning,
I’m writing to share my annual reflective writing practice with you — Finding the Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the year.
Last week, the Gingko tree out in front of my office here in Putney was shining a brilliant yellow and then one morning when I came to work, she had shed her leaves creating a glorious circle of yellow in the bright green grass on the common. This is her autumnal habit, prompted by the first night that the temperature descends to precisely 29 degrees. My autumnal habit is to reflect back as I collect the leaves from the ground with a practice I developed that is inspired by a passage I found in Jean Yves Leloup’s translation of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene*. This late autumn reflection prepares me to turn towards next as the solstice and calendar year-end approaches.
Here is the practice: Finding the Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the Year
Carve out some time to reflect on the last year in your journal. Pulling out your calendar to jog your memory might be helpful. Then just soften your gaze back over the past year and respond to the prompts below for each of the four seasons. The invitation here is to respond to these six prompts four times, beginning with the winter a year ago. (Could take you as long as an hour or so to complete . . . ) Significant milestones or intimate moments in your answers are all appropriate. I think you will find that specificity gives wonderful depth to the process.
For each of the seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall:
Describe a time that you experienced beauty.
In what way(s) were you the cause of something beautiful?
In what way(s) was the truth revealed to you?
In what way(s) did you reveal or speak the truth?
In what way(s) were you on the receiving end of goodness?
In what way(s) were you the cause of goodness?
Upon completion, give yourself a little time to let your responses settle in you. I invite you to feel the interplay of these three fundamental threads in the tapestry of your life. Take a walk or a bath and take in the beauty, truth and goodness that you found when you put pen to page.
I’ll be posting my annual year end practice, Turning Towards Next, in December, which will give you an opportunity to look ahead and consider any reorientation, renewed commitments, or actions that all of this may inspire in you.
Enjoy, and may we all wage peace . . .
Warmly, Lyedie
November 11, 2022
Putney, Vermont
*(Click here to find that passage on the About page of my website)
Do you have the patience to wait
until your mud settles,
and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
until the right action
arises by itself?
— Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Photo credit: Elizabeth Ungerleider