Thanks to a couple of calligraphy friends, I feel inspired to begin 2009 with a wish, lettered in my journal:
I wish for healing, for myself, for my dear ones, for my community, for my country and for our planet.
First I saw a New Year’s greeting on the graphics board of my calligraphy listserv, done by my friend Ann Van Tassel. She will hang it outside as a weathergram, sending her wish for peace into the universe, letting it fade and weather, so that her wish becomes part of the elements.
Wishing is also at the heart of the nursery rhyme that I used for my Star Spell book (page pictured at top), “Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.” Wishes, spells, prayers, asking for aid from seeds, from stars, or from deities, spoken by children or adults, are all universal ways of reaching out and touching the greater world. Spoken in a church or mosque with heartfelt devotion, or chanted by children in a field of dandelions at dusk, the impulse is the same.
What is your wish for the new year?