There is nothing like the sound of Bing Crosby, especially as he sings with the Andrews Sister in a 1949 recording, “The 12 Days of Christmas.” This song has continued to baffle me as it is played year after year by different singers on different platforms. Snopes.com reveals that the song was written perhaps to signify the 12 days between Jesus’ birth and the arrival of the Magi, but also, as a “’memory-and-forfeits’” game in which the leader recited a verse, each of the players repeated the verse, the leader added another verse, and so on until one of the players made a mistake, with the player who erred having to pay a penalty, such as a offering up a kiss or a sweet” in the 18th century. There are also three French variations suggesting its origination from France (Snopes.com).
However the song was created, it resonants to me this year especially as my year of transformation comes to a close. The 12 Days of Christmas reminds me that I have time to continue my own journey towards a more rooted spirituality with God and myself. The end of the year is a chance for us all to be aware of what we want to improve on for ourselves and what goals we have for the coming year. For me, it starts with finding hope. Emily Dickinson wrote,
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,” (www.poets.org).
Now my thoughts focus on how I can help you, my faithful readers. What about you? What does the idea of being rooted, or mindful, mean to you? To some being mindful is like a chore as stressful as paying the bills, yet so essential. To me being mindfully rooted in my own self is as promising as a bird taking flight despite a storm. I do not want you to feel mindfulness is a chore to endure, but instead, I want you to realize that your more you become aware of your own positives and negatives of your self, the more you will be able to cut away the bad cycles and be rooted in something growing up like a tree rooted in a firm foundation.
For the next 12 days, I want to take you on a guided journey to help you find meaning and balance towards a more positive, attainable self-identity. I am going to take the “12 Days of Christmas” theme and apply it to my own language for what I believe it takes to find your best self. During the 12 days for developing a microcosm towards a better self, I will ask questions, provide opportunities for you to practice, and ask you to reflect on your own understanding from each lesson. Realize, I am not a licensed expert; however, I am someone who has undergone intense counseling services and completed hours of research from professional sources.
![Image result for finding your wholeness](https://i0.wp.com/personaltao.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Wholeness.jpg?resize=347%2C208&ssl=1)
My intent is to give you creative skills for developing a bigger picture of yourself and the self-care you need to find wholeness. With the 12 days, you will find 12 layers of questions and scenarios to prepare you for a better self-fulling year in 2019.
From the Personal Tao:
“True power will be in how you hold yourself in all three manners of moments:
(1) As your person
(2) As a part of one and then realize: *** many communities ***
(3) Connected to inner acceptance: in a balance of being one with the world and yet alive as yourself.
The truth is people try to do all three at once. That fails since these stances are at odds with each other and then that creates frustration and then the conflict of not doing it well.
The secret of wholeness (not a secret rather it’s a practice call: LIVING) is you dance between these three moments.”
Today is the first day: “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me,/A partridge in a pear tree.”
For your partridge, I give to you the question: What is some greater force you put above your self? If you are a religious person, perhaps you put your hope in God, or Buddha; if you are an non-believer, perhaps you put your hope in science or in your community.
The point is to develop a rooted system larger than yourself, so that you are aware of your essential and nonessential needs, and so much more. You can learn to identify how to live with a profoundly peaceful feeling, as I have learned from my mentors, no longer getting upset or stressed at certain triggers.
Finding a true root system means that you are ready to put away permanently negative, self-harming habits and begin to understand your own spirituality in the way it can cleanse your soul. What makes you passionate? What puts a spark in your soul? Is it helping others; is it getting recognition; is it not making a mistake when it matters?
Forbes.com author, Margie Warrell, shares, “Often our greatest gifts emerge from our biggest adversities; those experiences you would never have chosen but which ultimately developed strengths and added a deeper dimension to who you are as a human being… All that really matters is that you can connect to something that ignites a spark of emotion in you, on some level.”
Today, I challenge you to find something you place your hope in and something in which you can focus on as you continue to develop the path towards your best year ever. I suggest starting a journal, or a journal app, to write your thoughts as you move through the next eleven days. I always like to draw images as well as write words in my journal. For my hope, I drew a tree with deep roots. My hope, God, is written in the trunk of the tree. Within the branches are the people I am supported by and the parts of my life I cherish enough to want to improve to make them better.
Please share your thoughts with me and share this post with others! I appreciate your feedback as well as your support!
![](https://i0.wp.com/janellescreativelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/RemembertobuildaStrongRootSystem.jpg?resize=300%2C212&ssl=1)
Today, I challenge you to find something you place your hope in and something in which you can focus on as you continue to develop the path towards your best year ever. I suggest starting a journal or online Doc to write your thoughts as you move through the next eleven days. I always like to draw images as well as write words in my journal. For my hope, I drew a tree with deep roots. My hope, God, is written in the trunk of the tree. Within the branches are the people I am supported by and the parts of my life I cherish enough to want to improve to make them better.
Please share your thoughts with me and share this post with others! I always appreciate your feedback as well as your support!
For more information on finding something to put your hope in, check out these great resources from Amazon:
- Finding Hope for Your Life Study Guideby James W. Goll
- When God Disappears: Finding Hope When Your Circumstances Seem Impossibleby Shane Stanford and Deanna Favre
- Hope for Your Heart: Finding Strength in Life’s Storms by June Hunt
![Hope for Your Heart: Finding Strength in Life's Storms](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51bZYdvqTpL._AC_US218_.jpg?ssl=1)
![When God Disappears: Finding Hope When Your Circumstances Seem Impossible](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51krt4EtqBL._AC_US218_.jpg?ssl=1)
![Finding Hope for Your Life Study Guide](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51U1CR35MgL._AC_US218_.jpg?ssl=1)
Remember, I am an Amazon Affiliate. You can support me further by purchasing the above books at no extra cost to you.