February 2004

With each new breath comes the promise of renewal and possibility. Collectively we acknowledge the possibilities a new cycle might conjure on New Year's Eve.

There is a powerful wave of potential energy when combining personal intention with the collective energy of millions of people around the world committing to improving their lives in some way. Regardless of our good intentions space needs to be created for change to take place. If we are buried in ties to the past we prevent "real change" from taking place and resolutions slip away rather than take root.

This year we invited some friends over for munchies and champagne before heading down to College Street to catch a favourite soul band and dance in the new year. We wanted to create a space in the house for personalizing the event with a homemade ritual environment. We put a beautiful hand blown glass bowl in one of the rooms, filled with water and floating candles on the surface. Guests were invited to take a slip of paper and pen and first consider what they would like to create in their life this year and then write down what they needed to release in order that their resolution be given the space to take root.

It was fun to enter the room throughout the night and notice how swiftly guests were willing to write down on their paper what was hindering their momentum and needed to go. The desired release came as they burnt the paper, letting its ashes dissolve in the water, its departure marked by a scent of vanishing smoke. Some pieces defied the flames, resisting perhaps, or too deeply ensnared. A bowl of seeds sat nearby for those confident of their intention, into which some whispered their future plans, while others took seeds in their pockets as a symbol of what they wanted to plant. It was a really nice way to ritualize the day and join into the collective energy that was in the air that night.

Curious, I asked a few guests how they found the experience a month later. One guest felt his resolve was clearly part of a larger plan that was altering his behavior, and remaining in his conscious mind. Understanding that "real change" comes from recognizing the residue of past attachments that hinder new movement, he was actively addressing them in a variety of ways. Particularly, thinking through how the intended changes could be integrated into the garden of his life. He offered these lines by George Eliot: "Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together."

Another guest knew that the release of the past was in fact the core of her resolution. In the days that followed it was clear that others needed to assist her resolve, by committing to not dredge up a particular aspect of her past. This was a year of moving into a future free of attachments that had been stifling her power. It was time to feel she was joyfully creating "real change". She also offered a few inspiring words she was using whenever the aspect of her past she was releasing attempted to reintegrate into her life: Lord grant me the serenity to accept what I can't change, the courage to change what I can, and the wisdom to know the difference (known as the Serenity Prayer, its origins are unclear).

Within a few weeks I noticed the issues that lay beneath the attitude I released to the flames, were coming up not only for me but for those closest to me. Releasing the coward that is afraid of being fabulous and that insists we are less than children of god is an attitude most of us would like to vaporize. Noticeably, events just before the holidays required a hero. Throughout the holidays I had laryngitis and when I found my hero, I found my voice, a hero's voice. It appeared that some of the seeds were actually sprouting. Decisions that were made by my wounded child landed under my nose and required a powerful "magical child" to fix them in order to move forward into a heroic present.

In keeping with my friends and their quotes, may I offer a few words from Marianne Williamson (not Nelson Mandela as some have quoted): "We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?"

So may I suggest, if you have not already, that you ride the collective wave of the season and get burning those papers and planting your fabulous future!