Aunty received an email from Nick of The Sacred Science team (no – not Scientology or wizard stuff) and it quoted Rumi.  Rumi was a 13th century Persian poet, scholar and mystic.  One beautiful quote attributed to him is “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”

Another less beautiful but very wise quote is “Make like a tree and let the dead leaves drop.”

Nick’s January 7 blog post was about carrying around emotional and/or physical baggage that drag us down and prevent us from getting better, stronger, or more capable of moving forward.  His suggestion was to have a fire ceremony to get rid of our bad stuff, our dead leaves.  This will allow new growth without our past and present hindrances.

He suggests:

• Cut 10 strips of paper to write on – the thinner the paper the better.  On each strip, write down a memory, habit, fear, or thought that is bothering you or something that you realize you need to let go because it is harmful or limiting you in your life.  Use a pen for this exercise.
• Light a small fire – it can be a fireplace (in Hawaii, a hibachi would work).  Please be safe.
• One by one, read aloud each word on each strip of paper.  Intensity of emotion is good – this is the junk stuff that we want out of our life.
• After you read each note, hold it over the flame and say “It is time for us to part ways. Goodbye.” Exhale as each piece of paper ignites and disappears.

According to Nick, this has helped him create an inner shift within himself and has been used for centuries by others to assist in healing of spiritual and physical wounds, as well as helping to unblock our inner traffic jams.

Aunty has plenty of traffic jams.  This is the start of a new year, and Aunty has yet to sit down to reflect and write down goals or resolutions.  One that would be foremost on that list would be getting rid of clutter and physical excesses in every room and closet.  Marie Kondo’s “The life-changing magic of tidying up” is helping (and will be in a future post).

Perhaps having the fire ceremony with one of the strips being “fear of getting rid of things that I don’t use because I might need it one of these days” will help speed along the process.

Perhaps writing down Aunty’s other negative thoughts and emotions that have been pushed far back and away will bring it unwelcomingly to light, so that they can be released and removed upon burning and bidding them farewell.

Aunty will be doing this soon, when nobody is in earshot (or the neighbors might think that Aunty is batty).

Perhaps Aunty will then Make like a tree and leaf, anew.