Transitioning Into a New Year

It’s long been a tradition to set New Year’s Resolutions.  I believe that how we choose to spend the transition from one year to another is, in itself, the creation of intention.  So here’s how I spent the last day of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

New Year’s Eve:

1. After hugging my family goodbye in Ottawa, I spent the day traveling from one continent to another – reading, watching movies, chatting with my neighbour, thinking, and sleeping.  When New Year’s Eve hit both Canada and Austria, I was flying high in the skies, aimed towards education, adventure, mystery, discovery, creativity, and so much more.
2. After doing the laundry (I didn’t want to start off the New Year with dirty laundry – bad Feng Shui), washing up, and getting dressed, I relaxed for an hour with a great book friends gave me, “Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog”.
3. I did the groceries – filling my fridge and cupboards with an abundance of healthy organic foods – good Feng Shui.
4. I then decided that although part of me wanted to stay home and relax by myself (that ever so strong introvert self), a stronger part of me would have regretted not playing tourist by exploring the free activities along Vienna’s New Year’s Path – the whole downtown core was filled with hundreds of thousands of people, several stages, outdoor screens at the Opera House and  St. Stephen’s Cathedral, an abundance of stands selling food, champagne, punch, mulled wine, and paraphernalia of the swine variety (pigs are a traditional Austrian symbol of good luck for the incoming year),and waltzing lessons.  So I pushed through my resistance and headed out, walking around the historic part of town from 4:30pm to 6:45pm – plenty of time to reaffirm that I’m not into crowds, especially when a good number of folks are drunk and setting off loud firecrackers and fireworks (websites warned to bring along ear plugs to avoid permanent hearing damage).  I’m sure extroverts had a great time until the wee hours of the morning, but I was quite content with my explorations.  Glad I did it! My most interesting moment was when I was heading towards the stage at City Hall for my final stop (where I eventually caught a few songs by the Abbariginals. I got a really good vibe from a street in the opposite direction.  There, I found a whole series of booths that offered spiritual guidance for the New Year – shamanism, astrology, numerology, angel card readings, etc.  Nice!
   
   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   
5. At 7pm, I joined 2 other classmates at our Director’s/Administrator’s apartment.  Florence & Laurence had just returned from their home in France and had invited us for appetizers and a champagne toast before shairng a meal and several hours of conversation.  It was really good to connect with them – to bring in the New Year with friends.  At midnight, we were on the roof watching fireworks lighting up the sky in all directions.  We set intentions for the New Year and sealed them with hugs.  Although the 3 major official fireworks shows were over by 12:15am, unofficial ones and sidewalk firecracker parties were  still happening by the time I got to my place at 1:15am.
   
   

   
6. I fell asleep listing all the things I was grateful for on this day and in 2013 and praying for everyone I know and those they know, and so on (basically, all of humanity).

New Year’s Day:

After 10 hours of sleep (catching up for my short night on the plane),

• I woke up and lit a Tibetan Dharma beeswax candle I received from my mother (which will burn until I go to bed).
• I smudged / purified myself and my room with Peruvian palo santo wood smoke.
• I showered, imagining all that no longer served me going down the drain to be transformed into something useful.
• I pulled 5 of my Spirit Calling Cards, asking for guidance on what I need to focus on in the next year.
  
• I did 3 pages of stream-of-consciousness writing related to my card reading, finding a deeper understanding in its meaning.
• I did my monthly financial tabulations for December as well as my yearly summary –  seeing where my money came from and where it went all the while evaluating if these categories / amounts were in line with my values and priorities (a great system I learned years ago in the book “Your Money or Your Life”).
• I moved $5,500 into my Tax Free Savings Account – the yearly allocation for Canadians.
• I read my January astrological forecast,  which actually predicted “The full moon of January 15 will be very helpful if you need to hear back about a passport, green card, or visa” – I will be applying for my residency visa on Friday…
• I connected with all of you by writing this blog and sent Happy New Year emails.
• I reached out to a friend to make plans for this weekend.

and before the day is over, I plan to:

• make a healthy organic brown rice & lentil soup;
• make a digital vision board – intuitive style;
• watch another inspiring film on youtube on the life of Nelson Mandala, featuring Sydney Poitier (I really enjoyed the one I saw at the Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa last week, “Mandela: Long Road to Freedom“, which is based on his autobiography and is nominated for 9 awards.  Mandela died during its London premier.
• get a good night’s sleep before getting back to business & art tomorrow.

This is how I’ve chosen to end one year and begin another:  a couple of days filled heart-connections, travel & tourism, stretching comfort zones, spiritual rituals, relaxation, inspiration, and other priorities.  I hope you’ve also had a great transition into 2014, in line with how you like to spend your time – being true to ourselves is indeed a great gift to all those around us.

May 2014 be filled with love, peace, joy, health, wealth, and happiness to all of you, dear readers (from 30 countries in December alone! – baffling!) and all those you know and those they know, and so on, and so on, etc.