New Year's Revolutions & The Gathering Of Spirits 2025 Gift Calendar
Music Always Music & One Inch Photos
Image from The James Webb Telescope
"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been"— Rainer Maria Rilke
First, before we get to the post, a moment of gratitude. Now at the turn of the year I want to thank everyone for subscribing to The Gathering of Spirits and supporting this vibrant Substack community. In the past three years this beautiful and widening circle has grown in ways beyond what I could have imagined. The Gathering of Spirits is now a community of over 20,000 engaged subscribers from all over the world, and consistently in the top five Substack offerings in the music category. I am grateful for the good questions we explore and the wisdom we share. When the internet is so full of toxicity - I’m deeply touched by this community and how, even in the most challenging moments, you are all so unfailing decent, welcoming, kind-hearted and good-humored, insightful, diverse, supportive and willing to listen. I’m thankful when so much is changing, we continue to come together to ponder what matters most, what supports our joy, what rings true and sounds genuine, what troubles our sleep, and what ultimately sustains..
Thank you and a deep bow of appreciation for what each one of you bring to the song and story of this community. I can’t express enough that it is only because of your free and supporting subscriptions that The Gathering of Spirits is possible.
Now on to the post…..
New Year’s Revolutions
A common practice at the turn of the year is to make New Year’s Resolutions. We put forth an intention a “resolve” to do, not do, or to finish something. The definition of resolution is a: A decision or determination to do or not do something. b: the act of solving a problem or dispute. Often resolutions have to do with resolving a problem or to create or change a habit—to eat more healthy, to move more frequently, watch less TV, begin a journal, quit smoking, learn Photoshop or how to play the banjo. It is good to set a goal and it is good to be intentional about our goals.
But perhaps there is a different way of turning the page from December to January. Rather than creating a resolution, what would it look like to begin 2025 with a New Year’s Revolution. Here is the definition of a revolution a: a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm. b: Referring to a complete orbit of one object around another, such as Earth’s revolution around the Sun. c: A significant societal or cultural shift.
What might happen if instead of focusing on resolving an old problem, we decided to intentionally open up our minds to a whole new way of thinking. What might change if we did as Rilke described and truly welcomed, “the new year, full of things that have never been." What might happen if I decided to not just focus on how to keep working with the well worn grooves of the path before me, but rather, consider what has always held true at the very center of my journey, what true thing do I keep circling around, as the earth orbits the sun. What I mean is, what if I listened to what sings at the center of my heart, what endures and against all odds, what helps me to see that there is still a path, but it may look different then anything I’ve imagined until now.
Even a good resolutions are based upon what I already know, and my desire to either enhance or banish what I already know. After the first week of November many of us were left feeling disillusioned and weary. The infinitely hard, but ultimately good part of disillusionment is we become real with honesty. My friend Parker Palmer has written powerfully about this idea, about how when we are free of illusion, (dis-illusioned) we have the opportunity to let go of the path that has been leading us nowhere, or just somewhere we have already been.
Rilke also wrote in another favorite poem “I live my life in growing orbits which move out over this wondrous world, I am circling around God, around ancient towers and I have been circling for a thousand years. And I still don’t know if I am an eagle or a storm or a great song.”
As an artist, as a seeker, all my life I’ve been circling around something compelling and beautiful. It has never been the straight path that has drawn me forward, but the mysterious one. It is the new idea, the new expression, the sound of the genuine that keeps calling me forward and inward. There is no illusion, it is the sound of something deeply true.
So this year, I’m making my own New Year’s Revolutions….
To listen more intently to the song at the center of my heart and sing it faithfully, living my life in growing orbits - not just a straight path but a true one.
Welcome “a year full of things that have never been” and trust that the way forward may not look like the way behind.
To be strengthen and not beaten down by reality, opening myself to new ways and new paths - imagining that this new path might just be called “Hallelujah”.
To be courageous - because Honey, change is coming.
To love this wondrous world, to lean into joy, and when the time is right to allow myself to be an eagle, a storm or a great song.
Question
What do you think of this idea of “A New Year’s Revolution.” If you were to make a “Revolution” this year, what would it be?
The Gift of Marking Time
Last year I created this calendar for everyone using photos from my “one inch photos” and excerpts from my posts and conversations with you through the year. I decided to continue the idea and created a new The Gathering of Spirits Calendar for 2025.
You can print it out and staple it at the top to create a year long calendar. I’ve created spaces for you to jot down notes or quotes or thoughts to yourself each month.
My suggestion is to not use this calendar for appointments or practical matters.
But instead, use this calendar in some creative way to mark moments, record wonder, make a note of gratitude, or celebrate when the world surprised you.
Next year….maybe we’ll all compare notes :-)
Download below!
Music Always Music
This song is called “Writing a Better Story.” It was recorded on my album The Point of Arrival. You can listen to the full album here on Spotify. The song was written to affirm that there are old stories we’ve been told, or told ourselves, for a very long time. Some of these stories are true, some not so much. But we have to power to write a new story from today forward, a better story, a truer story, one that expands our lives in life-giving ways.
Here is a second song from that same album. Its called “The Point of Arrival.” Every ending is a beginning. Some beginnings can only happen when we are finally done with an old story that has lost it’s purpose, when we are ready to begin again at the point of arrival. Again you can listen to the whole album (which is full of songs about stepping into the unknown and change) at Spotify Here
One Inch Photos
To be fully, completely healed with my flesh, my heart and my strength intact. Barring that, to continue in my quest to allow time to create.
I love that there is always music- so important to bring me through the darkness into the light. My revolution for the year is to befriend silence. To be aware of my tendency towards restlessness in silence. Carrie- I think one of your songs claims that some times silence is a noun. I am resonating with that more in this new year. It is my clear and persistent hope that through befriending silence I will create more communion with that which I am seeking in my own fragile yet courageous heart. Thank for this valuable and timely suggestion. Another revolution came to me from Fr. Greg Boyle- who wrote a book “Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness”- he is encouraging me to go more openly to the margins to see what I can learn- not so much what I can “resolve” to do. Thank you for this New Year’s challenge!