Reprinted from the January / February 2025 First Unity Church Newsletter
The first month of our calendar year is named for the Roman God, Janus, the God of gates, passages, endings, and beginnings. Janus has 2 faces–one to look back and reflect about the past year, and one to look forward to the future. Because there is something about the new year that urges us to make a new beginning, many people traditionally make New Year’s Resolutions. Unfortunately, research shows that just 9% of Americans keep their resolutions! In fact, Forbes reports that failing to keep resolutions is so common there are dates commemorating such failures, including Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day on January 17 and the second Friday in January as Quitter’s Day.
Maybe the reason resolutions are so rarely successful is that we fail to release what does not serve before we move forward in the new year. It’s been said, “You can’t move into tomorrow if your hands are full of yesterday’s old junk.” In the mid 1800’s, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote:
Ring Out the Old, Ring In the New
Ring happy bells across the snow:
The year is going; let him go;
Ring out the false; ring in the true.
A New Year’s Poem
In Unity, we engage in two powerful rituals to help us “ring out the false” and “ring in the true.” During The Burning Bowl ritual, we release an attitude, belief, or pattern of thinking that is blocking our good and sabotaging our freedom. This is followed by The White Stone Ceremony, during which we discern what we want to be in the New Year. May 2025 be filled with love, light, and Truth for everyone in our First Unity Community in the world.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Holding on to what is spiritual and True,
As you know 2025 holds goodness for you.
Prayer and meditation are keys to success,
Positive thinking is your point of access.
Yes is the answer to claiming your power,
Never-ending possibilities unfold every hour.
Elevate your mind to embrace a new start,
With love and wisdom, follow your heart.
Yes, in 2025, you claim your birthright,
Emerging from darkness into the light,
And shining your light wherever you are
Reflecting God’s love both near and far.
Love to all~
Rev. Jan