In the Jedi Apprentice books, we see that the Jedi have rituals and traditions surrounding how they mark the new year, whether that’s the solstice, the new calendar year, or even your birthday as the marker of the old year turning into the new one. In The Hidden Past, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon mark the new year with a meditation, remembering the previous year and letting the lessons learned solidify, the distractions fade, and any hurts caused fade and heal.
So with that in mind, here is a meditation for reviewing the past year, and marking your goals as you step into the new one. I find this meditation is often aided by using a focus: whatever feels most appealing to you. Perhaps it’s goals you set early in the past year, a Jedi ideal you have, or even a physical object that reminds you of your path, like a beloved stone, a sword, even your holocron. Find something to rest in your hands or in your mind that will keep you focused on your Jedi path.
Close your eyes, and look inward, to yourself and your actions. Take a deep breath, then exhale. Inhale again, and breathe out slowly. As you breathe, bring your attention to your focus and your body, and begin to feel tension and distraction fade away.
Think back on your year: in some places it will feel like cracking open an old tome of things not disturbed in months, and in some it will feel like gathering feathers from a windstorm. Let yourself observe your year, your actions, your feelings, taking each in turn. Don’t get caught in stress, anger, recrimination, sadness, or intense joy even; remember, understand, and then move along.
Take as long with this process as you like, but don’t dwell on the year, or get bogged down in the traps of guilt, regret, or what-ifs. Look at what happened, not what could have or should have happened. As we go through life we make decisions, and then make another. We choose and choose again at each moment along our path, never able to remake the past, but always able to choose our future.
Come back into yourself, root yourself back into this present moment here, and now. With the wisdom gleaned from your meditations, look forward at your coming year, and commit yourself to walk your path in the Force with all the peace, knowledge, serenity, and harmony at your disposal.