Life as Ceremony. Lessons from 2024 and my “word” for 2025

Dec 31

My reflections on 2024 and intention setting for 2025 isn’t a big ceremony with candles lit and a quiet house.

Instead, I drink a cup of homemade cacao - its remnants still in a burned pot on the stove - while a soup bubbles for dinner, and the older two children watch Finding Nemo (Mino as Uma says). I’m in an apron, I’m in our new to us, but very old kitchen. I have just a few minutes to write and ponder.

This is life as ceremony, right? As puja.

There was a time where this wouldn’t “have counted” to me as spiritual practice. Much like we discount a workout if it’s not leaving us in a puddle of sweat. But, this IS the practice. To work with what we have and to honor ourselves and the needs of the moment as it is.

And, my spiritual moment is a hot cacao and 15 minutes of journaling at the kitchen table.

Friends, what a humbling year it has been. Maybe you, too?

We celebrated the birth of our third baby, Ford, in May. And, so many have shared in our joy - and serious leap of faith - in moving to Virginia, buying an 1800’s farmhouse in the foothills with a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. On a clear day, you can make out each ridge, the bare trees, the shadows from the fluffy clouds above.

These were two massive events filled with so much love and so much hardship.

Both can be true.

This last pregnancy about took me out, the labor was long, and the postpartum a steep recovery. Add to that an unexpected move to my version of “dream house” with plenty of not so dreamy problems, and you have a recipe for CHALLENGE. I’ll share some funny stories at some point about country mice and relentless gopher holes and child/toddler/baby sleep woes, but for now…

Challenge accepted.

What else is there to do, right?

This was the year I really learned my strength…am still learning really. This is the year where I’ve attempted more than ever to move like a river, surrendering to the flow of life, but also carving the landscape. Where I’m trying not to run away from pain, but to melt into it.

That is easier said than done.

It’s the year I experienced horrific misogyny in my professional life, not once, but TWICE, leading me to think that I was the problem. I’ve been working really hard to unravel that thread, because if you’ve experienced misogyny, YOU are NOT the problem.

It’s the year I helped our then two year old adapt to a new baby in the house (for months this was heartbreaking), and watched our then six year old become an older sibling again (which was magical).

The year I completely lost myself in mothering and sleepless nights, and felt my perceived identity slipping away yet again along with some confidence.

The year I felt a scary amount of rage at boundaries crossed, and felt an anger hidden as grief at what we’ve all lost in this life re: true community and a society that has forgotten to honor LIFE (instead, it exalts work, achievement, productivity at the expense of health and each other).

The year I cried over and over when I listened to yet another Zoom call where my husband’s employer shared that our children are burdens to work life, and “Can’t your wife do it?” Ma’am his wife could do it, but she has also been working and/or gave birth two weeks ago. And childcare costs are exorbitant, so we are quite literally doing the very best we can.

What I remind myself is that I am NOT the only one experiencing the above, and when we talk about it, others come forward. And, we all have the potential to create anew. Have you seen yourself in any of the stories above? Please write to me and share.

Our Earth, our systems are at a serious crossroads.

This is what I’m feeling right now.

And, with it all, I’m closing with a sense of HOPE.

Here’s where I return to ceremony. To living life as ceremony.

Within the framework of the Vedas, specifically Tantra, I know that life/Maa/Divine/God/Goddess is here to help you and me. That each experience is the result of Karmas, whether from this life or another. And, that we get to polish and burn through them, paving a fresh path for beauty anew.

Again, challenge accepted.

Can we soften and continue to practice ahimsa, even in the hard?

Can we diffuse the intensity of emotions, like anger, rage, grief, sadness?

What are our practices for that?

Honoring our emotions.
Integrating stillness everyday with meditation and prayer.
Moving our bodies daily.
Communing with nature.
Transforming our stories, pain, joy, rage into art.
Returning to hope.

HOPE - A feeling of trust. A belief in fulfillment. Pronoia.

This is my word for 2025.

To continue to practice trust when I feel like I continually get weighed down by muck that is beyond my control.

To fill my moments with as much love, patient effort, and gentle enthusiasm as I muster and to pray for strength when I feel like I cannot.

To know that when we all experience the so called “bad,” it’s to make space for the good. To make space for that which is FOR US. FOR you and FOR me.

Because YOU deserve what’s good, true and beautiful.

Eugene reminds me that the spiritual practice is seeing these hardships as “gifts.”

I wish that for you, too, as we close 2024.

I am so grateful for you however we’ve met. Through Yoga Dear, through online courses, through yoga classes in person or online, through referrals and your friends. Thank you for reading.

Send me your word (or words) for 2025! I really do love hearing from you. I write to create more community and connection, so seeing your name in my inbox is a true joy.

Happy New Year, dear ones.

Jai Ma.

With love,
Leanne