The Last Sunset of 2016

2016 has been a bugger of a year. From the many celebrity deaths to some personal challenges, I won't be disappointed to see it go. Some good things happened this year, too. I took a trip to New York City to see Billy Joel play at Madison Square Garden and went to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday.

Since today is December 31, I went for my fourth annual sunset watch party. Incidentally, I can't believe I haven't written a blog post since the first year in 2013. 2014 and 2015 had pretty much the same setup as what I wrote about in 2013. This year, though, I changed things a bit. I wanted to simplify. I still wanted to see the sunset and close the year. I'm still modeling my ritual on the Jewish celebration of Havdalah: Havdalah means separation in Hebrew and is usually observed at the end of the Sabbath on Saturday night after three stars are visible in the sky. I wanted to do something special to separate the years. I read that during Havdalah a person is required to use all five senses, so my goal was to do that. I would be at the beach, so I would SEE the sunset, FEEL the crystal I was carrying, HEAR the ocean, SMELL a special perfume I brought (more on that later), and TASTE my Ghiradelli Dark & Truffle square.

This year, instead of going to Half Moon Bay, I decided to go to Ocean Beach in San Francisco. I parked on Great Highway, not far from Lincoln Way. First I set up my grid in the back of the car. It wasn't a traditional grid, but I felt like it represented the energy I was going for. The base of it was two chunks of orange calcite. I love the color of the chunks, they look like orange slices. I felt like the orange calcite properties of being an energy amplifier that clears negative energy and showing a new way to look at a situation in order to move away from old, outdated thoughts were good for the new year. On top of those stones, sitting on an altar plate, was a clear quartz Sri Yantra generator. (More about the generator here.)

For the picture I added my chocolate and the bottle of perfume I used. It is the Hamsa perfume found here. Of all the oils and perfumes I have, I liked its quality of drawing in wellness across the physical and emotional planes for what I was doing.

After charging the grid, I closed the car and walked over to the sea wall to watch the setting sun. There were a lot of people out despite the 50 degree windy weather. There was at least one bonfire on the beach.  Here are a few of the pictures I took.  I've never done a selfie on these trips, saw someone else taking a selfie, so decided, what the heck?  Lucky you, dear reader.

People were applauding as the sun set. One person even yelled, "goodbye 2016!" I almost didn't go. I'm so glad I did. This has become my ritual and I think I'm okay if I don't make it to midnight because I've already seen the end of the year. As I write on my Completion Circle page every year, "The sunset makes no promises of whether it will be here tomorrow. It simply promises the hope of another tomorrow."

2017 will be the 8th year I've used what is now called My Shining Year Life book.  I never fill out the entire book, just those parts that call to me.  If you are interested, there may still be a few left. You can check out my affiliate link here.

Thanks for following through my journey. I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

 *not all links are affiliate links. affiliate links are noted.

The Last Sunset of 2013

Last January I decided that I wanted to be sure to watch the last sunset of 2013.  After putting that on my 100 things to do list (in my Create Your Shining Year In Life Workbook), I also decided that I wanted to find a way to celebrate the end of the year.  I decided to model this celebration after the Jewish celebration of Havdalah.  Havdalah means separation in Hebrew and is usually observed at the end of the Sabbath on Saturday night after three stars are visible in the sky.  I wanted to do something special to separate 2013 and 2014.  I decided this last January.  True to form, I wrote my service last night, December 30, 2013.  Below are my service and pictures I took along the way.
I read that during Havdalah a person is required to use all five senses, so my goal was to do that.  I would be at the beach, so I would SEE the sunset, FEEL the sand and the energy from the ocean, HEAR the ocean, SMELL the lavender, fir, and chamomile scent of the candle, but what could I TASTE?  Well, it's my party, er ceremony and I want the year to go out on a high note, so I got some Ghiradelli Dark & Truffle squares.
I headed out to Half Moon Bay State Beach with the goal of getting some ocean water for later in the ceremony, finding a perfect spot on the beach, setting up a crystal grid, and meditating while listening to and watching the waves.  Once in my perfect spot, I laid out all my stuff:

Crystals for the grid, including positive intention charms, and a chakra wand for activating the grid are on the left.  In the middle are my Completion Circle diagram (from the Amazing Life Workbook), my notes for the ceremony, the candle, and a Tibetan singing bowl that I grabbed at the last minute.  In the upper right is the bowl about a third full of ocean water.  Oh and the chocolate square. :)

Next I enabled Reiki and set up my grid:

The amethyst sphere is there mainly for amethyst's property of breaking addiction, something I want to manifest in 2014.  (Also it's pretty and purple.)
The rose quartz pieces are to manifest self-love and the clear quartz is there to amplify the properties.  The positive intention charms read Discipline, Passion, Strength, Focus, Integrity, and Imagine.

Here, too, is the water bowl and the chakra energy candle of Abundance, representing the 3rd eye chakra:

I had some time to relax since sunset was at 1701, so I turned on my meditation timer .  I've meditated 117 days in a row.  The ocean is a meditation for me, so I thought I'd get credit for it and extend the streak to 118.  At 1654 I hit the Tibetan singing bowl twice and began to read:
"Sunset is the most beautiful time of the day to me.  My favorite place on Earth is at the ocean, watching the sunset.  This sunset is not just the end of the day, it's the last of the year.
The ocean in front of me represents continuation.  The water I see and hear will travel around the world to other parts of the planet and some of it has already traveled.  Oh the stories it could tell if I could only understand its language!"

I then stopped and experienced the sunset.  Here are a few pictures of the sequence of the sunset:

My next plan was to light the candle and work with the Completion Circle.  The problem was the wind was not having any part of letting me light the candle.  (This wasn't surprising, but I was hoping I could finish at the beach.)  I packed everything up and headed home.  I set up the crystal grid next to the Completion Circle with the candle:

And read each section of the circle, letting the wax drip on the paper:

After finishing the Circle, I recited the following, "With this sunset I complete and release 2013 and invite Abundance, Happiness, Love, and Freedom into my life for 2014 and beyond."
I had tried to bring home the beach water because I wanted to extinguish the candle in it, but it spilled in the car.  There was a teeny tiny drop still in the bowl which I managed to use to extinguish the candle.  I then opened the chocolate square, took a bite and took this picture (the square is in it if you look closely):

2014 is the fifth year that Leonie Dawson has made Create Your Shining Year In Life Workbook available.  I've done varying parts each year, but with little follow through throughout the year.  This is the first year I've done anything like this and it was really cathartic for me.  2013 wasn't an awful year, as years go, but it was very trying.  I'm hoping to stick to my schedule of following up on the workbook so that I'm not scrambling next December to see how many of my 100 things to do list I have or have not done and what I haven't followed through on.  (I wrote 45 things on the 100 things list and am happy to report that 21 are done or are in progress.)
Thanks for following through my journey.  I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

©2013 Hayley Green

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Came across this book as I was wandering through an office supply store.

Foggy Blue Sky

Tried to get a picture of the fog on my way home from work this evening.

Self Portrait Sunday #1

Sorry, no pithy title for this post. :)
Some members of an online community I belong to started doing self portraits once a week.
I started and then stopped and am starting again.  No time like getting one's hair done to spur that one, right?  So I went into the yard and, with phone in hand, took a few pictures.  This is the best of the bunch and I actually like it!  (Don't like many pictures of me.)
And DH likes the picture so much that he suggested I use it as a professional portrait, so it will be going up on my professional sites.

A Peaceful Spot

Today's picture is a seat in the garden at Alana's restaurant in Redwood City. I've been coming here 16+ years and just found this. Was waiting to have brunch with good friends and thought this looked so peaceful.

Let Sleeping Puppies Lay? Lie?

The dogs were being cute, lying next to each other this morning.
I took a spill this morning (I'm fine) and didn't spend much time outside, so you get dogs. :)