December 2019
The year is turning again now. As promised, I’m posting my annual reflection practice to assist you with fully embracing all that this darkening-before-the-light time of year has to offer. I’ve been developing this practice for a number of years now and last year was the first year that I shared it far and wide. In the last twelve months, a number of people have stopped me in the street and in the grocery store to thank me for sharing it. I have to admit, I had to expand my “receiving muscle” to take it in and I’m so grateful for these precious moments of appreciation and validation. So, I trust that you will enjoy this practice and that it will give you purchase on your path to fulfillment. Please feel free to share it!
The idea here is to take some time to close up the year and begin to turn towards next year. Part 1, the practice of closing up — your day, week, month, year — gives rise to good beginnings. The practice of turning towards what is next (Part 2) by listening for your emerging future, gives a very different flavor to our usual New Year's Resolutions. As my wing women have described, this practice is both gentle and powerful — there is both grace and grit here.
Wisdom Council / Your Inner Committee
This practice will acquaint you with your inner Wisdom Council, which is a most wonderful and effective way to experience and get access to the fundamental capacities of grace and grit. The Wisdom Council is an archetypal ever-present inner "committee" that is always with you, and as you will discover, we all have one!
So, do you already have a practice or ritual way to close up the year and open to what is next? If not, I highly recommend it. If so, you already know how wonderful and beneficial it is and you might want to try this.
Part One - Closing Up the Year
Download the Wisdom Council inquiry questions and then carve out a little uninterrupted time (+/- 30 minutes) to cozy up with a cup of tea to really take stock with the first part of this practice. Give it your full attention to facilitate closure to the year in a very remarkable way. Have your journal handy, or just some paper and a pencil will do. Free write into these questions by putting your pencil to the page and just write whatever comes up for a few minutes without lifting the pencil. Remind yourself that your responses are for your eyes only, unless you want to share with a trusted friend, companion, or spouse.
Part Two - Turning Towards the Next
Give yourself as much as a week, or as little as an hour, before picking up Part Two, wherein the Wisdom Council questions will have you look ahead with the clarity and compassion of the closure afforded you by of Part One.
Click here to download the questions in pdf format
Please feel free to be guided through the practice with the audio recordings below if you’d like.
(Be sure to Bookmark this page so that you can refer back to it easily later . . . )
Note: Wisdom Council inquiries are powerful stuff. Please let these questions, and your responses to them, penetrate your heart, mind, and will-to-act. Let them begin to do their work as the year turns and unfolds in the coming months.
No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. - Epictetus
May the year ahead astonish us with all its beauty, truth and goodness!
Warmly, Lyedie
Putney, Vermont