Do you know what the best thing is about the departure of 2020? It’s actually the same thing as the year-end of every year—it is a perfect time for reflection, re-charging, re-evaluating, regrouping and re-starting another New Year. I don’t know anyone who is sad to see this year go. Good-bye and good riddance 2020 and don’t you come back, you hear?!
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The last week of the year is always my favorite. I love the slowing of the soul. After the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, there is this precious week where I spend time in a self-made spiritual retreat; there is nothing like an intensive with Jesus, is there? Just like our brains need a break from fast thinking (per Daniel Kahneman) by engaging in slower focused thinking activities, so do our souls. We live at such a fast pace, automating our thoughts and tasks for efficiency, our poor souls can be easily forsaken.
It’s important to take time to reflect, and no other year has provided more down time to do this than 2020, unlike 100 years ago:
It was in the 1920’s, when no one had time to reflect, that I saw a still life painting with a flower that was perfectly exquisite, but so small you really could not appreciate it.
–Georgia O’Keefe, American artist
I’ve said all along that those who dressed up in roaring 1920’s flapper fashion on December 31, 2019 must have mistakenly conjured up some other kind of spirit. I’m kidding! But maybe not.
Back to my week of the slowing of the soul; I’ve been sharing my year-end activities in my Facebook group. I hope you join me there. I’ve just finished recording a 90-minute session of Making Sense of Yourself, Life and God in 2020 as a way to help redeem this year of sickness, death and chaos. You can download the eBook here.
In my Facebook group, I am also going to do a year-end review of my 2020 junk journal copy of Organizing Your Prayer Closet, and I am going to do a reveal of my new 2021 version, so please me join me here.
What about you? Have you picked out your prayer journal for 2021??? There is no better activity for the slowing of soul than prayer journaling, especially my unique method of structured prayer journaling. Please check out my options in my Etsy shop, ChurchtownMarket. You can purchase a junk journal version, plain version but with a personal note OR one of my courses with a copy of Organizing Your Prayer Closet (Abingdon Press).
Lastly, I want to thank you for subscribing to GinaDuke.com. Happy New Year! I pray it will be blessed.
Before you go, I would really like to hear what some of your activities are for the slowing of the soul? I am always looking for new ways to connect with God. Thank you for your insightful tips. What a blessing to have a community like you.
