I’ve been feeling glum this week, yet I’ve known I need to pull myself out of it.
It’s been over a year since I put anything into my gratitude jar. Today the jar stared my in the face, with its accumulated dust. I decided to restart the tradition.It has been a new year tradition. Out with the old, in with the new. Reflecting upon the past, welcoming the future.
Why wait for the new year?
I emptied the jar, and I got my big metal bowl. I put a trivet under it to protect my chest of drawers. I also retrieved my statue of Gaia and invited her to the ritual. Then I read each of those entries. Each was a happy memory. Something I was grateful for between January 1 and May 22 of 2015. Some of the entries brought a smile to my face. Some, I couldn’t really recall.
After reading them, I burned them. Some Pagans have the idea that whatever energy you send out to the world will be returned to you threefold. That is why I burn the entries instead of keeping them. I release all of that gratitude, good feeling, joy back into the universe in the hopes it will be returned to me threefold.
I think I’ve already received that positive energy back once over. Reading those notes of gratitude raised my spirits. It was healing to remember all of the things I have been grateful for and am grateful for now while I’m going through this emotional dip.
My head feels clearer, my heart lighter.
Now the gratitude jar is empty. I’m already looking forward to restarting the tradition. My goal is to write an entry every day. And I’ve decided I don’t need to wait until the new year to perform the releasing tradition again. If I’m having a low day, that will be the day to do it.