Wrap It Up

Whole, Healing Days

It is no coincidence that the root word of whole, health, heal and holy is hale (as in, to be hale and hearty). When we heal, we become whole--we are holy. During the holiday season, it is important to open to the healing forces and natural states of grace that allow us to be hale and hearty once again. The author Madeleine L'Engle reminds us, "The marvelous thing is that this holiness is nothing we can earn. We don't become holy by acquiring merit badges and Brownie points. It has nothing to do with virtue or job descriptions or morality. It is nothing we can do, in this do-it-yourself world. It is a gift, sheer gift, waiting there to be recognized and received. We do not have to be qualified to be holy. We do not have to be qualified to be whole or healed." It can be easy to get caught up in the frantic energy of shopping, festivities, and travel this month. Resolve instead to approach the season in a balanced way, to nourish your health and allow your whole self to be present to the holy days and nights.

~Angeles Arrien

How can you nourish your whole self during this dark season? For me it means spending more time in the liminal dream space where my creative ideas incubate. It is about honoring the cycles of rest and rejuvenation by sleeping longer, slowing down, baking something delicious, and soaking in the wonder of the season with my children who are still mesmerized and delighted by the magic. Overall, it is about striving less and inviting more…letting go of the strong clutch on certainty and predictability and opening to the abundant mystery beneath what's known. I like to spend some time reflecting on the year that has passed and re-visit my original intentions. Where am I now in relation to where I was when I began this year? 

This month I'd like to share with you five reflection questions to consider as you wrap up the year. Take some time to journal your responses based on your personal, professional and/or interpersonal experiences this year:

• What did you accomplish or achieve this year that you are most proud of? 

• What was your greatest challenge this year? 

• Who/What has been instrumental in your life this year? How so? 

• Who have you become this year? What qualities have you developed or discovered?

• If you were to give this year a title what would it be?

Finally, create a small ritual to celebrate the completion of another year! Light a candle, offer a prayer, ask to release, forgive or heal what no longer serves you and be grateful for all of the gifts you have received. 


Burning the Old Year
By: Naomi Shihab Nye

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.   
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,   
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,   
lists of vegetables, partial poems.   
Orange swirling flame of days,   
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,   
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.   
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,   
only the things I didn’t do   
crackle after the blazing dies.


Wishing you peaceful holy-days...