Cassie, there are definitely points in our lives worth celebrating, and with all you have this year, well, completing all this work and getting on with life is certainly such a point.
When I went full-time I relocated, taking very little with me from my old life, about three Prius-loads of stuff. That first afternoon here, I changed, packed the last of his stuff in a box, and dropped it off at Goodwill. All that is left are old digital photos, and a small bag of souvenirs, submarine dolphins, a name tag from NeXT Computer, a watch my daughter gave me, a handful of things I associate with major events in my life.
I did a ritual about a month after going fulltime. I wrote out on slips of paper things I wanted to be free of, bits of the life I once had, the bad assumptions I had made, the elements of my life I wished to be free of, the anxieties and worries that chewed at me. I placed all the papers into a large bowl.
On my condo balcony, I sat half-Lotus, meditating on the place I was at in my life, trying to envision what I would become. I sang my Metta, and struck a match, dropping it into the bowl. My anxieties, my worries, all the bad assumptions of my past, were released into faint gray smoke vanishing into the sky.
Celebrating the end of becoming, the start of being ourselves, feels right to me.
At the end of your labors this year, I hope you do find the opportunity to celebrate, honor yourself, and rejoice in finding your true self and living your life fully. You have earned this.
