Archive for December, 2009

Burning Bowl

Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve, and New Decade’s Eve as well. Not my favorite holiday by a long shot.

For many years I lived at the north end of Times Square. I could see the ball fall from my window—and the noise was deafening! But that’s not why this isn’t a favorite holy-day for me. It’s because for many years New Year’s Eve was associated with alcohol, and I don’t do alcohol any more.

Instead, my sweetie and I tend to make a dinner of favorite comfort foods, and do ceremony instead. Burning Bowl, to be exact.

In it, we get settled and still and think (and talk) seriously about all the things we choose to release from the old year. Grudges, resentments, illnesses, you name it. Anything can be released if we’ll get conscious about it.

We make lists and then we burn them in a bowl. Done. Finito. Gone.

Relief!

Then we get even stiller and more prayerful and begin to write a letter to ourselves from our understanding of God. What will the next year bring? What are we choosing? Why? What actions do we need to take in order to facilitate these choices?

All bets on what’s possible are off. We’re into dream mode, and since we’re dreaming, we might as well dream big. So dream big we do.

It’s freeing and fun. We laugh and joke about our dreams. We bring light hearts to them, and so, we also bring light to our dreams.

All ideas are worth contemplation. You never know. Dreams are stranger than fiction. And who knows? Maybe we’ll create enough inner peace to sway the balance toward peace on earth, goodwill to all.

Happy New Year!

The New Year Cometh

And, here, better late than never, is today’s.

And along with the new year, a new decade. I’ve heard several people say, “Good riddance,” to the first decade of the 21^st Century. I’m not so sure.

Instead, I think these first ten years have given us a clear mandate. Us in that sentence is humankind.

Sure, some pretty crummy things have happened. From the perspective of the United States, two wars. An economic meltdown. The subprime mortgage crisis. Bernard Madoff. Healthcare. I could go on but you already know the “bad” things.

What’s important is what the bad things teach us.

It’s time to examine our values in a big way, both individually and collectively.

So I’m asking: what’s important to you? I mean it. What’s really important to you?

If you’ll spend some time on this exercise, I can pretty much guarantee that whatever you decide holds the most importance for you, it will be an intangible.

Love.

Peace.

Joy.

Truth.

Honor.

Beauty.

Contribution.

Generosity.

Freedom.

If you’ll pick one for this new year of this new decade and actually use it to help you live your life, you’ll be astonished at how easy decisions become, how making choices with a plumbline is simple, how it’s easy to say ‘no’ when you know what mandates your ‘yes.’

For me, I have, for many years, made my choices based on a simple question: does this enhance inner peace or diminish inner peace? ‘This’ can be anything. Doing my errands today. Taking on a new client. Turning down a client. Writing. Not writing. I use it for everything.

In the next few days, give it some thought. What’s vital for your well-being? When you know this small, pertinent byte of information, your life becomes simpler.

In this new year, I wish you simplicity and elegance, and, as always, buckets of inner peace.

At Home

This is the 12/25 post.

Seeds XI, 52

Seed: At Home

Today is Christmas Day, and most of us who celebrate this holiday spend Christmas at home. Where’s that—for you?

It took me many years to figure out that home was wherever I was, wherever I love, wherever I give. Feeling at home is a choice, dear one, one you can make whenever and wherever you want.

Maya Angelou wrote, “I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” The better you know yourself, the more at home you will be. Being at home in oneself is an admirable and valuable goal. Choose it.

If you truly choose to be at home no matter where you are, you can be. You really can. The definition of home changes throughout a lifetime. Let your own understanding of home grow with your growth, then you’ll be at home everywhere.

Blessed Season of Light!

Be joy,

Susan Corso

Dr. Susan Corso

Seeds are remarkable gifts. Sown in consciousness, they bring you to the most important part of your being—your Divine Spark.

Check out the Seeds Archive for past messages of inspiration.

When you have friends you would like added to the Seeds e-mail list, send their addresses to me at susan@susancorso.com.

For spiritual nourishment, please visit my website www.susancorso.com

and my blogs Seeds for Sanctuary, God’s Dictionary,

Ode Magazine, and The Huffington Post and

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