Rev. Lori on letting go and dreaming forward at the new year.
A version of this reflection was originally published in the previous week’s Friday Flyer.
Hello Wonderful People,
Here we are in liminal space again! The space between our celebrations of Hanukah, Christmas, Solstice and our celebration of Janus coming up on Sunday. Time to take a breath from all of the busyness of the season and prepare to inventory and let go of the baggage of 2025. And where to begin with that…am I right? We have focused on hope, and joy and love and community. So when we take inventory, hold those close as barometers of your year. I share a quick verse about Janus:
Two faces,
one looking back, one forward—
keeper of thresholds,
guardian of beginnings.
In one eye, memory:
what shaped us, what we survived.
In the other, possibility:
doors unlatched, light not yet named.
Janus teaches us
to pause in the doorway,
to bless what was
and step—awake—into what may be.
I invite you to close your eyes and picture your doorway, literally or figuratively. Glance backwards and see what baggage, furniture, trash, treasure sits behind from the past. Notice what captures yours attention the most. What emotion, event, experience is most present for your as you think about 2025? I invite you to bow to it/them and thank them for what they offered. I invite you to forgive them or yourself for any unwanted or unhappy energy. I invite you to release it/them through your doorway of 2025 and begin to envision what closing that door looks like.
Now to the future. Visualize your most hoped for dream for 2026. I know many have big events happening and I am envisioning all joyful, wonder filled moments for you. What does that joyous future look like? What do you hope for most? Who is there with you? Where is it taking place? What is the season where this is revealing itself? Of course reality is always more mysterious and unexpected than our imagination, but I believe our spirituality beckons us to envision possibility in all things. It beckons us to hope in all things. It beckons us to love in all ways.
What is love calling us to do this week? What is love calling you/us to do in 2026? What is love calling you/us to do?
Rev Lori Whittemore
(she, her, hers)
Unitarian Universalist Church of Saco Biddeford