Clean Sheets!

I always love the beauty of a new year.  It’s like fresh, clean sheets on a bed, a ritual I believe is worth practicing at the start of a new year.  Don’t get me wrong, though, I say, giggling. New Year’s is not the only day I put clean sheets on my bed; it’s just one essential symbolic day.  Another symbolic practice for me is hanging up a new wall calendar.  I don’t immediately start writing in any appointments; I hang it up and welcome the open invitation to be in another year. 

The start of a new year is a blank canvas, extending an opportunity to start fresh and have an open mind.  Whether the previous year was peaceful and uneventful or checkered with challenges, the possibility of a new year breathes life and hope into me.  While I am always grateful for another year lived, I have been more than willing to turn the page on some years to welcome a new start.  Even in saying that, some of my most challenging years have also been ones that are worth celebrating milestones of patience, perseverance, courage, and an unyielding commitment to life and to love in all forms.  

At the close of yet another year, I have an open mind with self-reflection, asking myself some questions.  What went well?  What didn’t?  Could I have done anything differently?  With that in mind, I turn the page, mindfully noting the answers to my questions, and move forward with optimism and sometimes even relief to have another opportunity.  I hope it is the same for you.  No matter what events occurred for you last year, embrace this new year with hope, seeing it as a new opportunity.  

So, change your sheets and hang up a new wall calendar, leaving it blank for at least one day. Allow the invitation to a new year of possibility to resonate. I know I will, and so may it be for you.