Have you ever received a Christmas gift that was the wrong size, wrong color or just, well, inappropriate? Often, we exchange them. The same holds true of our thoughts.

One of my favorite New Year's traditions is the burning bowl service at my Unity church. Here you can take your limiting thoughts and exchange them for more constructive ones. So, resentment can become peace and greed can become charity.

Through the years, I've attended a burning bowl service, an annual rite at Unity Temple on the Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. During the ceremony, I reflect on the past year and how I want to change things going forward. Then I write a few words on a piece of paper that describe the thoughts I want to give up. When I toss the paper in the flame, I find it oddly therapeutic to watch the paper disappear into ash and smoke. Then, I eagerly pick up a new piece of paper—courtesy of the Temple, ready-made with positive words (love, respect, honesty)—to see me through the year.

I vividly recall one year the word I picked up was simplicity. Simplicity. I was a little disappointed. Earlier that day I'd sorted through all the ambitions I had for my life and thoughts of how I could improve my circumstances. I wanted to work on my professional skills, my finances, my relationships. I wanted to have more patience with my children. I wanted to stop engaging in self-defeating cycles led by ego. I wanted to use my money wisely and spend it on things that would truly bring me happiness.

It was like I'd been told to abandon all that. But in the days that followed, I gradually began to warm up to simplicity. Maybe my life was too complex. I decided to give simplicity a chance.

Once I began to embrace simplicity, I began to recognize how all the plans I had been so busy making seemed to pull me in competing directions. I realized I had adopted a pattern of thinking that things would be great once I got that promotion, once I had a new car, once my kids were more independent, once I had (fill in the blank). All these thoughts were preventing me from living in the moment. Maybe simplicity was not such a bad thing.

After a year, I felt like I had perfected simplicity. Come January 1, I took my seat once again at the burning bowl service and eagerly anticipated having a new word to see me through the year. Would you believe, I selected simplicity again? Perhaps more accurately, simplicity selected me.

Happy New Year, everyone! May this one be simply awesome.
 

---

This excerpt appeared in Unity Magazine.

Many Unity churches offer New Year's Burning Bowl ceremonies. Use the “Find a Church” database to locate a Unity church near you.

To help you transform your life in the New Year, visit our new Twelve Powers Online Resource Center where you'll find spiritual teachings and tools each month to help you create a life of abundance and meaning.

Comments

Login to post a comment