Symbols for the New Year

Welcome to that land of in-between. The post-Christmas hush, the pre-new year’s resolution, and all of the emotions that go with it.

I alluded to the fact that I’m doing a few things differently this year as the new year approaches- in ways I’ve never attempted before.

I have always been a big fan of choosing a word for the year. So much so, I think I’ve done it for the past 10 years. But truthfully, whether it’s because my writing has become less of a hobby and more of a career these days, or because after the last few pandemic years we’ve all had my brain is just completely wiped of all language skills, I’ve decided that I will do the following thing INSTEAD of selecting just one word to preside over my 2022.

1. I’ve chosen two symbols, rather than words, to hang in my home, to hold on to in nature, to even wear around my neck to represent what I want to cultivate this new year.

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WHY SYMBOLS ?

Perhaps it’s because we’ve been home more often than we’ve ever been the last few years. Maybe it’s because we moved out to the country and out of our microcosm of suburbia where seasons are directed by the growing of corn and the tilling of the field. Or, maybe it’s simply because the older I get the more I realize the importance of the natural world in one’s body. But I’ve made a lot of observations the last few months concerning the stars and the bees; so much so I’ve decided to hold onto them when words fail me this year.

Why Stars?

Fall and Winter have always been where my heart resides; but the darkness and I are not friends.

Finally, in adulthood, my lifelong nighttime anxiety has caught up to me. I’m no longer twenty-two; my body does not recover after all-night hand-wringing.

My Mother used to tell me to always look for the sunrise. The morning always comes. And while that has been a comfort throughout childhood, while my babies found their lungs throughout the nights as newborns, and during sickness and grief, the sunrise now feels too far away and much too long to wait.

So I’ve begun to research the stars.

I discovered that Orion sits just above the unfinished room that will become the office where I’ll write these words on an actual desk instead of hunched over the kitchen sink one-handed; the other wrist deep in dirty sink water.

I look for him now, and the dippers, too. My daughter consistently points out Uranus to me but she’s now in the 5th grade so I’m not sure if I can trust it.

I doodle them everywhere- paint them on pumpkins, buy wallpaper full of constellations.

I whisper to myself as the light fades and the cold creeps through the floorboards the words I now use as balm;

If I can’t make it until morning, the stars will hold.

The truest thread of anxiety is that it makes you feel so desperately alone. But looking for stars as opposed to one, solitary sun has flown the shutters open and made glass houses. There’s more than enough of them to go around.

Why Bees?

If you dig even just a little, you’ll find that bees symbolize a plethora of things. For me this year, I’ll be taking the following meanings with me: health and sweetness, prosperity and community, vitality and good work, and a spiritual approach to the beginning of the day.

Bees also are a continual reminder of warmer and longer days, of how if we would like to continue nourishing our bodies with the fruits that grow we must also care about the bees who make it happen. It’s more of a reminder that there is a domino effect to the care and keeping of the earth and that it is directly tied into humanity as a whole. I have Robin Wall Kimmerer to thank for my gift economy perspective shift in that regard. ( If you haven’t read, “Braiding Sweetgrass,” may I suggest it be the first on your 2022 reading list?)

The Stars and the Bees are both beautiful symbols; and I suppose, ways for me to sneak in more meanings and words into my year rather than keeping it to one word only.

There you have it. I always say that I never know what I’m thinking until I write it down and, here you’ve seen it unfold in real time. I chose symbols this year not because I am word-ed out, but because I will use any vehicle necessary to use as many words as possible.

How are you bringing in the new year? Words or symbols, verses or phrases, goals or objectives- I’m wishing you the peace of mind to know when something is serving you and when to let it go and try something new.

Cheers to 2022.