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amplifier that clears negative energy and showing a new way to look at a situation in order to move away from old, outdated thoughts were good for the new year.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!
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