Work in progress
About a year ago, on New Years Eve a friend of mine invited me to go with her and attend an end of the year ceremony at her church. At first when I heard the word church, I was reluctant to go, simply because I'm not interested to be part of any organized and institutionalized religious community. But knowing her well, that she is not a person who understands her spiritual beliefs and freedom confined within the practice of the rules and rituals of a institution, I went.
Part of this community that I got to know during the time I spent there, was of some really kind and open-minded people. The celebration had music, singing and a symbolic ritual of letting go and starting new. That was the exciting part for me that got my curiosity. It was represented with the burning bowl, and writing a Letter to God for the new year.
Burning = letting go all the past year worries, problems and things you want to release.
Letter to God = start fresh, start the new year by writing a letter addressed to God (practically to yourself) about your dreams, wishes, aspirations for the coming year. Then the church staff holds the letter in an envelope, sealed with the mail address and a stamp for the entire year, and sends it back to everyone who wrote one, in December, close the end of the year.
Today in the mail I got the letter I wrote about a year ago. I was curious to read what exactly had been on my mind a year ago. I felt some angst too, angsts that I was going to prove to myself failure, that a full year has gone by and I might have reached none of those goals. (evidently, lack of self-trust!).
I had a pleasant feeling of reading the letter. It brought me back vividly the moment I wrote it and it was some kind of a fresh encounter with my self in the past, still not so long of a past. This was some kind a reverse time lapse of twelve months back, and a really interesting feeling as far as perceiving time backwards, as if it was present.
To my surprise two out of eight things I listed in my Letter to God were solid accomplishments. The first one was a wish that my parents visit me for the first time in my home in United States, after several years since I moved here from Europe, and the second was about me taking a trip to Machu Picchu, Peru. Both these were great experiences for me this year. Well, as far as the other remaining six wishes, I looked at them on the piece of paper and realized this is work in progress. I always think of us as unfinished masterpieces in the making, literally, not figuratively. Everyday, molding, throwing, turning, threading, baking a part here and a part there, just like the long, tireless artist's work put to complete a masterpiece in the making.
I decided that I'll write a letter to God every year, to pause at times, slow down, inhale and look at all the steps of the masterful work in progress. The swing of the time pendulum, whether looking at it in reverse or forward, will always remind us that this is the journey.
Part of this community that I got to know during the time I spent there, was of some really kind and open-minded people. The celebration had music, singing and a symbolic ritual of letting go and starting new. That was the exciting part for me that got my curiosity. It was represented with the burning bowl, and writing a Letter to God for the new year.
Burning = letting go all the past year worries, problems and things you want to release.
Letter to God = start fresh, start the new year by writing a letter addressed to God (practically to yourself) about your dreams, wishes, aspirations for the coming year. Then the church staff holds the letter in an envelope, sealed with the mail address and a stamp for the entire year, and sends it back to everyone who wrote one, in December, close the end of the year.
Today in the mail I got the letter I wrote about a year ago. I was curious to read what exactly had been on my mind a year ago. I felt some angst too, angsts that I was going to prove to myself failure, that a full year has gone by and I might have reached none of those goals. (evidently, lack of self-trust!).
I had a pleasant feeling of reading the letter. It brought me back vividly the moment I wrote it and it was some kind of a fresh encounter with my self in the past, still not so long of a past. This was some kind a reverse time lapse of twelve months back, and a really interesting feeling as far as perceiving time backwards, as if it was present.
To my surprise two out of eight things I listed in my Letter to God were solid accomplishments. The first one was a wish that my parents visit me for the first time in my home in United States, after several years since I moved here from Europe, and the second was about me taking a trip to Machu Picchu, Peru. Both these were great experiences for me this year. Well, as far as the other remaining six wishes, I looked at them on the piece of paper and realized this is work in progress. I always think of us as unfinished masterpieces in the making, literally, not figuratively. Everyday, molding, throwing, turning, threading, baking a part here and a part there, just like the long, tireless artist's work put to complete a masterpiece in the making.
I decided that I'll write a letter to God every year, to pause at times, slow down, inhale and look at all the steps of the masterful work in progress. The swing of the time pendulum, whether looking at it in reverse or forward, will always remind us that this is the journey.
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