Adventures with Ideas: Truth, Beauty and the Paradoxes of Life

“This NYE I know the very least I have ever known about the year head, well at least it feels that way. Work, travel, love, – all is up for grabs. I’m 28, my Saturn Returns, and I often feel perplexed by life, by the innumerous options and possibilities, and of the paradoxes that seem to lie both within me and surrounding me. I don’t always know what I want. But I do know it when I get it. Right now everything is unknown yet I’m happy, content in who I am and my maturing flexibility and perseverance. I have faith in something. While I don’t know what this something is, it has taken care of me and answered my prayers for the last 28 years. Something inside me makes me feel as if this will continue in my future. That is exciting. There are many adventures to come.” 31/12/10.

I must have finished reading Adventures Of Ideas by Alfred North Whitehead on the 31st of December 2010, as today reading through my summary notes and quotes I discovered the paragraph above.

It was refreshing to be reminded of embracing life’s uncertainties and persevering through life’s challenges with an faith in one’s intuitive feeling that when you know something’s right, you know it.

It was a strange reminder of how fast the years go by. The year that followed, 2011, was a hell of a year for me. Beginning with a trip to the hospital on New Year’s Day, the year followed with many challenges, mishaps and personal growth.

2012 has been a lot of fun while also a year of turning 30, feeling more grounded and establishing a clearer sense of priorities and who I am. While much of this is still in process it seems my Saturn Returns is over (thank God!) and a new chapter of life is beginning.

A week ago, on 21/12/2012, Earth began a new 24,000 year astrological cycle. For four years of my life I had been aware of this day and what it represents. I’m not sure I feel any different, or if there’s been much of a “shift in consciousness”, but I tell you what: it’s weird to think 2013 is just around the corner…

2013 is a strange number. It’s the first year to be denoted by four different digits since 1987. It contains as sense of new beginnings, bigger than normal years. I’m going to kick it off with a two week adventure in Thailand with a man who I am in love with. “I don’t always know what I want. But I do know it when I get it.” … I couldn’t be in a happier place!

It’s that time of year where one gets reflective and grateful, and on top of that the last time I was in Thailand was en route to Japan in October 2004, a couple of months before the tsunami. That’s eight years ago ~ how fast time flies!! With all these new beginnings, and a feeling of a cycle completed, I feel inclined to take a trip down memory lane and try to recall the last eight years of New Year celebrations:

2004 – Mt Fuji with Kumi and Ran’s family

2005 – Tokyo – Snowboarding and and a mid-night trip to a Shinto temple

2006 – Narrabeen lake – reconnecting with school friends

2007 – Belrose with my Opa, after a catch up with school friends who are starting to get hitched.

2008 – Bolivia – Uyuni Salt Lakes!!! Magic!

2009 – Paddington (next door to where I live now) with close friends

2010 – Rose Bay / Vauclause – picnic, swim, fireworks & fun.

2011 – Vancouver in the Shangri la with one of my best friends – cheers honey!

 2012 Sydney / Thailand …

The beginning of a new year is a marking point for each of our lives. One looks at how they have grown and what they have accomplished in the 365 days just past, and considers their hopes for the year ahead. As I look through my last eight years of new year celebrations, of where I’ve travelled and the ways I’ve grown, I feel as if life only seems to get richer and richer.

My dear friends and readers of this blog, I thank you for your comments, emails, for “liking” on Facebook, and the other ways you support me – it is your  positive reinforcement that motivates me to continue to share my “adventures with ideas”.

I wish you all a happy silly season full of laughter and fun. I hope you have an enriching vision of your lives ready for 2013, and that the universe conspires to make that vision your reality. I will be on an airplane soon after the clock ticks over so I will say it now:

Happy New Year!

With love, Juliet xo

It’s lovely to be in Sydney for a Christmas with family and friends, BBQs, beaches, drinks by the pool, secret Santas, Sydney-to-Hobart boat watching, and (blow up) snowmen.

This year is the polar opposite (literally and metaphorically) from my Christmas in Vancouver last year, which I spent rugged up outdoor ice skating, eating, dancing and playing limbo with my bestie and a few of her French and Canadian friends.

It’s interesting to think about the role of ritual in our lives. Those things that we do intentionally or not, as an expression of our culture or religion, our family, our being. Often we don’t stop to ask why we do it. I thought I’d take a moment to wiki the why…

Why do we celebrate on the 25th of December?

The 25th of December coincides Roman winter solstice, the celebration of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti which means “the birthday of the unconquered sun”. From this day forward (in the Northern Hemisphere) days will get longer. Unfortunate for us in Oz our days will start to get shorter. Should Aussies be celebrating Christmas in June?

Why do we have Christmas trees?

This tradition goes back to the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews where “evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands” were used to  “symbolize eternal life.” It was common for pagan Europeans to worship trees, and the rite survived the pagan conversion to Christianity. Its 16th-century origins are sometimes associated with Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther who, according to the TV channel History, “first added lighted candles to a tree.”[2]

Why do we exchange gifts?

To feed our economy? No. Actually gift giving was common in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, an ancient festival which took place in late December and may have influenced Christmas customs.^[68] On Christmas, Christians exchange gifts on the basis that the tradition is associated with St. Nicholas and that gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh were given to the infant Jesus. [4]

And Santa??

Most of us have heard of “Saint Nicolas” but I didn’t know much about him. This 3rd century saint had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him. Hence the stockings. The name Santa Claus comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, which itself results from a series of mis-transliteration of “Saint Nikolaos”.[3]

Why “Boxing” Day?

The day after Christmas was a day that masters/employers would give servants/tradesmen gifts known as a “Christmas box”.[5]

What are your living rituals?

My family are Christian and our Christmas dinner last night opened with a prayer. If you follow my blog you know that I’m no longer religious but I am quite spiritual. I’ve come to a peaceful reconciliation of my understanding of science and religion in an ecological “panentheistic” or “process theist” understanding based on contextualised religions, scientific and philosophical understandings of the world.

Prayer before a meal is a lovely ritual – expressing gratitude, asking “God” to bless the food one eats to one’s body, and committing one’s worries to a greater power. When my family pray my mind translates some parts of the prayer to fit with my theological and historical framework.

For example at a Christmas dinner last night my Dad said prayer that began “Thank you for the birth of Your Son.” As I prayed I noticed my mind translate it to “Thank you for the birth of our sun.”

Without our sun none of us would be here so if there’s anything one should be always thankful for, it is the birth of our sun.

Old and new

Also at last night’s dinner one of my beautiful cousins asked me:

“What is one thing from last year that you continued to do this year? What is something new that you did this year that you hope to continue to do next year? and What is something new that  you will do next year?”

These are good questions for both our personal life journeys, to keep us going in the direction we want to be heading, and for the journey shared by humanity.

Evolving rituals

When you look at ritual across cultures and histories, one sees a strange mixture from animal and human sacrifice include beating hearts thrown down pyramids, to song, dance and meditation. Sometimes rituals are peaceful, sometimes quite harmful, so it seems an important practice to occasionally step outside one’s rituals and question them.

In Transforming Worldviews, a book I’ve been referring to a lot in my thesis, Hiebert describes the important role of ritual in facilitating transformation. He writes that “Many living rituals are also performances—in doing them, we are transformed.” [1] p. 322.

Living rituals express the things inside us that cannot be reduced to words. “They point to mystery, root myths and metaphors, and fundamental allegiances, and express our deepest emotions and moral order.’[1] p. 322.

Hiebert notes that ‘Without living rituals, we have no appropriate ways to affirm our deepest beliefs, feelings, and morals, which lead to new lives in a new community and in the world.’ [1] p. 324.

It makes me wonder what types of living rituals might help us transform to a more ecologically sustainable and socially just global society?

Much of our lives involves living and evolving rituals, a part of our living and changing culture and the collective existence of our species. It’s nice when you see that rituals aren’t ancient artifacts, but living and evolving actions and performances in which you can choose to participate with, engaging in the symbolic and metaphoric levels of our being.

In light of the celebrations and rituals that have already started and are continuing for a while yet… I wish you all a very happy Christmas, happy (belated) Hanukkah, happy New Year, happy Epiphany, and happy holidays! I hope that you enjoy your rituals in which ever way you please.

References:

[1] Hiebert, Paul G. (2008). Transforming Worldviews : An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nicholas

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day

Does anyone else feel kind-of strange making plans for 2013? I find it hard to believe that December 2012 has arrived. It was strange enough when 2012 began and now I feel even stranger putting appointments in next year’s calendar.

I am not one of the one-in-ten Australians who believe the world will end in December 2012 (recent trivia statistic), but the date has been on my radar for the last four years, and, well, 2013 hasn’t.

There was so much I wanted to do before December 2012. I wanted my book to be a best-seller. I planned to finish my PhD. I thought I’d see a shift in society that might give me confidence about the future. I was convinced that “either we will change by 2012, or we are doomed.”

Meanwhile my book is finished, but not published. My PhD has been downgraded back to MPhil, and even that isn’t complete. The global population is still exponentially growing, and our consumption habits with it.

That being said, I have noticed subtle changes. The “Cradle to Cradle” model that uses waste as food can be seen all around: from biodegradable garbage bags to eco-buildings. Two and a half years ago I wrote was blogging about “Where we are, where we are going, and how”. Inspired by the Pachamamma Alliances “Awakening The Dreamer” initiative that aimed to challenge the average materialistic aspirations and consider more social and ecological objectives that might carry with it greater levels of happiness and feelings of fulfillment. More or less the conclusion of such “new consciousness” movements is that individual’s making changes locally will add up to great change globally. I have seen many of such changes. We may still be far from sustainable living but the intention to adapt our lifestyles is there and is spreading fast. The shift in our actions, to match our intentions, is slowly but surely following suit.

Why 2012? And why the winter/summer solstice (depending on your hemisphere) i.e. the 21st December 2012? And what will happen? There have been many theories:

• the lining up of the earth, sun and galactic center of the Milky Way – happens every 26,000 year cycle – some say this is due to our sun (and with it our galaxy) revolving around another star (I think this one is probably true)
• geomagnetic reversal ie the poles will shift – north becomes south, south becomes north (might f* up your sat nav… but is a shift that takes thousands of years so I doubt you’ll notice)
• a cataclysmic end of the world/ end of human civilization, possibly with Planet X will colliding with Earth (I highly doubt it)
• shift to a new consciousness, toward a more peaceful way of being (I hope so!)

Calculate the Mayan Day Sign for your birthday here.

As far as I’m concerned every day is the beginning of a new world. The beginning of a new year has a grander feeling about it, and with the last 4 years having an awareness of this particular end/beginning, it’s an even more exciting countdown: 17 days, 17 hours to go.

Whatever happens I’m going to be celebrating with a huge End of the World Party at JGHQ, and I can’t wait!

Bring on the end of the world-as-we-know-it… maybe I’ll catch ya on the other side 😉