Endings, Beginnings

The year is drawing to a close, and a new year is just days away. I don’t like New Year’s resolutions, because they tend to make us look at ourselves as if we’re not good enough, as if our lives aren’t good enough. Our accomplishments and lessons are ignored, and we focus on how we need to work hard at being better.
Instead of making resolutions, we can stop and take some time to look back at the year gone by. We can look at what we are saying goodbye to from the past year. What lessons were learned, what obstacles were overcome? We can celebrate our accomplishments, joys, and triumphs, and we can take some time to mourn that which we lost this year. What in our lives is new since this time last year? What has left us since last year?
After looking back, we can look forward. We can identify that which in our lives is already perfect, that we want to give more attention to this year. We can look at what we hope to learn more about in the coming year. What accomplishments are we looking forward to? What are we hoping to celebrate this year? What do we imagine we’ll be looking back upon at this time next year?
Any point of transition is an opportunity to reflect on just where we’ve been, and where we hope to go next. The best way to give ourselves this reflection is in a moment of stillness, where we aren’t striving for anything, but just looking.