CFC Blog #255: A Year in Review
To kick off the first week of January, I asked a small group of CFC members if they'd be willing to share about what they do to reflect on and/or prepare for the new year and a fresh start. My sister Christina and I had been discussing the rituals we partake in usually on the very last day of the year, so then I was curious to extend the conversation and hear others' intentional practices as well. Therefore as the first month of 2021 comes to a close, here are some of the thoughtful responses I received and am sharing with you below!
- Amanda
A Year in Review
I remember my college days (yikes, feels like forever ago...) being so excited for New Year's Eve - planning my outfits, talking to friends about how we'd celebrate, where we'd go, how big it would be. Now, I look forward to Year's Eve, shockingly, even more. But for a very different reason.
New Year's Eve has become the day I add a few pages to the story of my life. Each Dec 31st, I write a Year In Review, recapping some of the big moments and "themes" of each month. And each year, I find this ritual fascinating for two reasons:
#1) Because my brain seems to recall the good moments and release the bad. Though sometimes I'd assume the opposite.
*(This became especially evident in 2020, when I dreaded writing my YIR because I thought my hands would be pouring out phrases like "The month I reached peak anxiety!" Instead, they wrote things like, "The month of eating with the sunsets" and "The month of transformation").
#2) Because once I step away from each month, I often see the thread that ties them all together. How I got from January 1st to December 31st and what I hadn't seen building and linking along the way.
Often, I find myself lost in the days wondering what it all "means." I demand a lot from life and often ponder its bigger purpose. But through my YIRs I've begun to see that the purpose of life (for me at least), is simply, to live it... with all of its ups and downs, ebbs and flows. To feel with all of my senses and realize that that is the human experience: ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and an invisible thread linking them all together.
- Christina Posa
My new year ritual is to take a long walk with my husband in which we reflect over the year. We share high's and low's with each other and share our intention for the new year. I also write my intention down and do a meditation with it.
- Florine van Wulfften Palthe
I have a very simple habit every year-end. I look back on the previous year and ask myself, if I could choose only one thing I did that year to characterise that year, what would I choose? And if I could set myself just one thing to do in the new year, what would it be? Finally I ask myself, what did I choose as the one thing last year before the year began, and was it the same thing I chose looking back. Sometimes I carry on and do the same exercise over a five or ten year horizon. But I don’t do that every year. I only do the look back, look forward and review.
- JP Rangaswami
My New Year’s ritual (and I’ve done it for the last 20 years) is that on New Year’s day – I spend about two hours journaling my “intentions” for the new year. So – it’s not goals, nor is it metrics that I set for myself – but my intentions. I distinguish the two by saying that my goals measure whether I won or lost, whereas living my intentions focus on how I want to be in the moment whether I’m winning or losing. So, I start by reviewing my last year’s intentions (which I purposely haven’t looked at since I finished them the previous year). I’m always surprised by how wrong AND how right I can be. Then I write my new ones. It’s incredibly satisfying to me.
- Rob Rose
Rituals: Definitely cross country skiing with friends at the Nordmarka Forest in Oslo and/or skating at Frogner Stadion, an ice skating rink adjacent to the Vigeland sculpture park. The Mayor of Oslo even made sure the stadion was surrounded by heaps of fake snow from early fall, for ambience before the real snowfall finally happened yesterday. She said she did it to bring joy to the 3-5 year olds, but I I know for a fact that the 30-50 year olds appreciated it too : ) Having fun outdoors brings me back to childhood and the “anything is possible” mindset - which I am very happy to polish until it sparkles every January
Looking up at the skies, or at snow, trees, lakes and even more snow grounds me. The forest is so peaceful.
Cutting through ice reminds me that fun requires some risk. And when I am on the ice with friends playing I am also reminded that the key is to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s already been. All Canadians know this already, so our post ice skating ritual is usually Canadian inspired - like pancakes with maple syrup.
Additionally a cafe in the middle of Nordmarka probably has the world's best Cinnabons - I wish I could take you all with me to taste - so venturing into the forest is worth it under any circumstances. There is even a good possibility of encountering a real world Bambi, snow foxes, hares, or a shy lynx while digging into heavenly layers of cinnamon, sugar and other magical ingredients.
- Leonore Nielsen