How will you end 2009?
How will you end the year of our Lord 2009? Will you finish this year — or will you complete it?
Finishing just happens; you don’t have much to do with it. 12:01 a.m. merely pops up on the clock and that’s that. You move on to 2010 without so much as a faretheewell to the 365 days that just passed.
But completing . . . now’s here’s a different story. Completing is active, not passive. Completion is something you make a decision to do. You vow to complete on 2009 and all that it was to you. You energetically wrap it up, acknowledge it, and applaud its gifts. 2009′s lessons are now bound in its own primer and filed away for future reference.
Completing feels like choice. As I am a great advocate of not having rules imposed upon me, I’ll go for completion over finished every time. Wouldn’t you rather have a completion date than a deadline?
So here’s what I am saying to myself on these last hours of 2009:
Thank you, 2009, for teaching me so much about __________. I’ve learned so much about ______, that in fact, I am completed on it.
Thank you, 2009, for giving me so much _____. I really appreciated that.
I know that 2010 will bring me new lessons. I am fervently hoping that one of these lessons will fall into the domain of what it feels like to discover my jeans are too loose. Or maybe I could be challenged by having too much Apple stock just as iSlate hits on January 26.
So if there are parts of 2009 that you want to be done with — say adieu to them now. Don’t just finish the year out. Don’t drag the grief, hurts, angers, fears or frustrations from one calendar to the next. Actively let them go.
There’s a Completion exercise that’s worked for many of my friends. On New Year’s Eve, they sit in front of the fireplace, bonfire or candle. First, they write down all they want to complete on for that year. Then they say a farewell prayer or meditation, and place the slips of paper into the flame, watching as each curls and burns. As the smoke rises, they bless 2009 and say goodbye for good.
Happy New Year!
