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Every year, between the threshold of the old year and the new, during the Capricorn days following Christmas that spill over into the new year, I create a board. Not a vision board. There are no photos of dream vacation destinations or mention of goals or aspirations. It’s rather a reflection board. It’s an invitation to channel my highest creative self and create a bold and unapologetic expression of who I am in that particular moment. I give myself complete artistic freedom making a collage of the photos, journal entries, drawings, and art I accumulated over the past year. I don’t judge myself as I play with colors and use mythologic creatures to represent the vastness that is my selfhood. I keep my creation on my wall until the new year when it is time to make a new one.
For the first time this year, I invited young learners to join me in this process. I guided Victoria (8) and Tanya (7) through a mediation in which they envisioned animal allies that wanted to appear as support for the new year. They both had many animals come through and they were enthusiastic about researching the folklore of these animals and then decided to draw pictures and find photographs and art from the internet to put on their boards. We did another meditation in which we pulled Angel Messenger Cards asking our guides for anchor words that we could relay in the next year.
This process for me has unfolded intuitively over the past several years and passing it on and incorporating the ideas of these young people transformed the experience into one of community got to see each other more deeply and mutually affirm vulnerability and authentic expression.