36 Full Color Pages
5.5×5.5 inches square
Printed with Recycled Paper & Soy Ink

From the Introduction:

This is a re-printing of the fifth issue in a series of Reflective Art Journals I began two years ago. Appropriately enough, the idea for beginning this series began while I was away for some retreat time over New Year’s Eve on the coast of western Canada. More and more often, people are taking the celebration of New Year’s as a time for reflection on what has gone before and to listen to their longing for what lies ahead. Each year I see retreat centers and other groups offering options for meaningful ritual and practice. While celebrating with friends can be a very joyful thing, the late night party on December 31st with its endless supply of alcohol has become far less satisfying for many. People are hungering for more depth to this time of transition. We are recognizing the opportunity of a threshold.

The theme of this issue was inspired by my own fascination with the human desire for renewal and the chance to begin again. There is something so very hopeful to me in this fundamental impulse. January 1st brings out our fervent desires for the future and our commitments to change, whatever that change entails. Our inclination is usually a set of “resolutions” aimed at working harder for whatever it is we want. There is nothing wrong with making resolutions. However they often aim so high without first cultivating the change of heart necessary to prepare space for these new possibilities to take root.

I had two purposes in mind when creating this journal. The first is to explore several different dates for the celebration of the New Year across traditions, and therefore the multiple opportunities offered to us during the year to “begin again.” The second purpose was to look at the various traditions and practices involved in welcoming in the new year and offer some of these practices and reflections as resources for you to integrate into your own celebration, whatever the date may be.

My hope is that the reflections, questions, quotes, images, and suggestions for practice offered here will help you to create a set of meaningful rituals for any time of transition you may be experiencing and give you more possibilities than just another set of New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps they will help to open your heart to the possibility of listening to your deepest desires and recognizing the sacred voice that speaks from that space. The Source of our Being is always inviting us into a renewed relationship and sense of purpose for our lives.

For this issue I use the focusing image of “Crossing the Threshold” because of my love of doors, doorways, and keys as potent symbols of new and unexplored possibilities. They can evoke a sense of powerful potential and both internal and external worlds we have yet to explore.

St. Teresa of Avila, the 16th century Carmelite mystic wrote the classic book The Interior Castle in which she likened the soul to a castle made with concentric rooms. As we deepen in the spiritual life, we move further into the interior castle of our souls and discover hidden rooms previously unavailable to us. During my travels in Europe to visit ancestral lands, I discovered so many beautiful old doors with manifold stories written into their grain that reminded me of my own hidden, inner rooms.

Due to the limitations of space here, my exploration of each tradition is necessarily brief, but hopefully just enough to provide you with some new inspiration. My purpose is not to give you an in-depth exploration of each tradition, nor to oversimplify the beauty and complexity of world religions and cultural belief systems. But I do believe that we can learn profound lessons from each other about the meaning of our lives through spiritual practices and rituals which help us to weave together a life of beauty and gratitude.

My hope is that whenever you choose to celebrate the New Year, you find yourself filled with wonder at the possibilities for your life and filled with gratitude for the riches you have already received.

May you make friends with newness and know deep within that the God who keeps revealing new things to us, also fills us with hope for a future of peace.

Blessings— Christine Valters Paintner

Sample Pages: