Yearly Guide

I’m not too big on the whole new year’s resolution thing. The idea of making a list and going through it one by one seems to constrained for me. Life, to me, needs flexibility. And so a few years ago I came up with the idea that I think has been doing good for me. It combines the focus for change, like the list, yet keeps it flexible. The idea crept up from my teachings of the native Spirit Guides. The Guide is an animal that embodies lessons that one should learn. Normally stumbled upon through meditation, observation or starvation, these guides are used as a focal point. How does the animal walk, sleep , talk, eat and generally live. By learning about these behaviours one can then take lessons for one’s own life. i.e. “cat’s sleep a lot and I hardly sleep at all and feel exhausted. Maybe I should sleep more” or “when snakes shed their skin it’s slow, and deliberate; often uncomfortable for the snake. So for my own personal transformation, I should keep these aspect in mind: slow, deliberate, and uncomfortable”.

No one needs to have mystic forces choose a guide. No, you don’t need to starve yourself in a forest for days to find one. Matter of fact, my last years guide, the snake, was one I chose while driving in my car. It was was completely deliberate and logical. I knew that for the next year I wanted change – personal transformation, and so with some thought I came up with my guide for the year: the snake. To help I bought a necklace with a symbol for snake. It was my reminder when I looked in a mirror, what I wanted to learn. It was something to play with as I stared out thinking. It was used to focus my thoughts.

This year, I’ve come up with my next guide: Fire. I stumbled upon the idea while looking at various personal horoscopes from different regions. I found that all of them are Fire signs: Ojibwa, Aztec, Chinese, Traditional Greek. Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire. And with some more though I realized that this would be a good focus for the year. Not as intentional as Snake, yet still powerful. So burn baby burn, bring on the fire.

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