Surrender to what is.
Let go of what was.
Have faith in what will be.
~ Sonia Ricotti
Another year is coming to an end. It’s at this time that I like to reflect on the last 365 days, be grateful for all the lessons I’ve learned, rejoice in all the joys that I’ve experienced, and let go of all the negativity.
For several years I’ve gone to a Burning Bowl ceremony on New Year’s Eve. On a piece of flash paper, we write down all the things we want to leave behind and not take with us into the new year. Then one by one, we walk up to the burning bowl and drop our paper into the fire. It is always with great excitement that I watch my past hurts go up in flame with one powerful flash poof… and just like that, at least for the moment, all the bad is gone. And what lingers is a feeling that there can only be good going forward.
On the coming eve of the New Year, may you take to heart Sonia Ricotti’s words and surrender to what is, let go of what was and have faith in what will be!
Angels Bark 
Thank you for this, dear Michele!
The Burning Bowl ceremony was an integral part of our NLP seminar week. At the end of the week, on the night of the firewalk, participants gathered around a bonfire that would soon be fashioned into a 20 foot long bed of red hot wood coals upon which they would walk barefoot from one end to the other, crossing over to a new way of thinking about their lives and their potential. As the logs burned in the hours before the firewalk, we wrote upon slips of paper those things that had been holding us back (in the past), baggage that we had been carrying (in the past) and things that no longer served us in the present. One by one we approached the fire and tossed our papers into it. That moment helped us prepare ourselves mentally and physically for the firewalk challenge. I witnessed children, old ladies, transients, alcoholics and long time drug abusers walk triumphantly across the fire bed to a new beginning, a new life.
Happy new year to you, your folks and your pups, dear friend Michele!
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I just love that Burning Bowl ceremony. I’ve never done a fire walk and don’t know that I’d be strong enough to have faith that I wouldn’t get burned walking across one! I’m impressed and admire that you have!
Happy New Year, my friend! Enjoy that movie!! XOXO
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I have heard of that ceremony and what a great way to end the year! I have to say I hope I do more this coming year than I did last year. Happy New Year to you:)
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This is a great time to reflect and to plan. We have a whole new year ahead of us and it is going to be what we make of it so we might as well plan on having a good one! Happy New Year Brigit!! Thanks for stopping by!
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Thank you so much for printing this Michele, I think this is a good way of starting a New Year!!
My motto is we can’t do anything about the past, so why carry it with us, today is now and what the future holds is in Gods hands, you are so right we live by faith.. So we have faith in what will be. God Bless and Have a Happy Healthy New Year to you, your Mom & Dad and all the puppies too.
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You are so right Mattie: what the future holds is in Gods hands. We have to have faith. I love the excitement of starting a new year. We can make changes and improvements and the prospect is always there to have a better year than the one that just passed. My mom sends her love!
Happy New Year to you too. I hope we get to see each other in the coming year!!! Wouldn’t that be awesome?! Eddie and Diane are coming down for 10 days in January so the whole family will be together. What a great way to start a new year!
Love you!
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Each year is better that the last in at least one way: I grow older and wiser.
Love,
Janie
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I love the idea of a ‘burning bowl’ ceremony! And you quote is a good one. Happy New Year!
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