The first month of the year is the realm of Janus. It is a way station, a yearly pause where it is customary to take a collective and individual breath. No matter how wretched the past year has been, I see the first few weeks of January as a time when it is possible to see the future in the spirit of optimism.
The god Janus represents the change inherent in any time of beginning or ending, as well as passages. Modern society characteristically reminds consumers and the waking public about this need with a perennial flood of advertisements for weight loss programs, tax software, household linens, lingerie, and gym memberships.
An illustration of the god Janus from the book Illvstrivm imagines,, published in Rome in 1517 [Wikimedia Commons]
After December’s barrage of pleas from various charities to donate before the calendar turns, we need space to pause. The frenetic pace of shopping sales for last-minute gifts, followed by a race to return some of the very same gifts in the last days of the waning year leaves many exhausted and in need of solace.
As Janus symbolizes a time of internal passage, I savor my time at the way station in a manner similar to those final moments just before one exits an automatic car wash. The pause for perhaps twenty or thirty seconds while the blower turns what was a simple wash to a crystalline polished surface is an exquisite moment. The balance point lies between two equal and opposite urges: to drive off quickly as the door lifts for the next car to enter or to pause even longer to savor the newly cleansed car, the sunshine strikes the window in a way that only happens with new cars or newly washed cars.
Things were a bit different to start this year. While the world still feels fractured and wounded, I have a hope that was absent at the start of 2021.
I use the interlude that Janus provides to cleanse the palate of the year 2021 by recalling what did work and what wins there were. It is too easy in times of turmoil to dismiss the upbeat and good times during our 365 day sojourn that we call a year in favor of complaints and recollections of misery. I count the medical crises that friends and family members survived as a win, despite the ravages to the various aspects of the healthcare system.
Jazmine Sullivan’s song “Masterpiece (Mona Lisa)” from her album Reality Show (2015) reflects a path each of us takes in coming out of the negative aspects of the year 2021 into 2022. When she sings the words, “as the sun shines on all of my glory, my flaws don’t look so bad at all,” I recall how the year 2021 exposed many flaws; nonetheless, as human beings we are resilient. We do not give up. We bind our hurts. We keep going.
I see hope, grace, and optimism as the core of the current year. Wynonna Judd’s “Rock Bottom” from her album Tell Me Why (1993) lays out the choices before each of us: “You’ve got two ways to go: straight up and sideways.” In 2021, some joined the “Great Resignation” by quitting jobs outright, or just deciding to take a new direction.
Like others in the past, I have chosen the sideways path as the safe option; however, it is never too late to change. The decision to move ahead or wallow in stagnation remains strictly our own. The gift Janus brings is this halcyon period where not only reflection, but an outline of positive forward action is possible.
While celebrating the external wins in our lives is important, so is acknowledging the internal growth that we have achieved. Many in our larger Pagan, Heathen, and polytheist communities work with or have come from backgrounds where there are internal disconnects in the areas of self-love and self-comfort. The stress of life during the pandemic may have opened wounds in ways we did not anticipate.
Over the past two years, I find that acknowledgement of how we treated ourselves well and how we changed for the better in our relations with others strengthens our internal self-appreciation muscles. This type of acceptance acts like isometric exercises for our emotional, psychological, and spiritual muscles. I am proud of the boundaries that the pandemic has forced onto me, in part due to just having the time to really focus on the self rather than act like a perpetual motion machine where I put my own needs last.
This is a hard admission to make because on the surface, things may seem to be alright. The buildup over time clings to the soul like the main drain pipe that we take for granted. We expect it to work with very little attention, until there is a toilet back up or a clear area of water around the clogged main drain, usually at a most inconvenient time.
The quiet moments allow time for internal debridement and cleanup that might not happen in the bustle of everyday life. We’re all going through life, trying to figure it out and we have a choice as to whether to look at the year 2022 through a clear lens or a muddied one. Optimism flourishes when we see a clear path. This path may not necessarily be easy, nor desirable, yet when we consider the choice to go up or sideways, it might be the best one.
New Years Resolution 1915 – Wikimedia – Public Domain
Many choose to make resolutions for the secular New Year. I see how advertising counts on this practice and the reality that such promises may die off in a few weeks, conveniently after signing up for the gym membership, a weight loss program, or lessons that we won’t have time to use. The rush to change everything about ourselves all at once can leave us paralyzed, unable to move forward with any of our intended resolutions.
Instead, what about making three categories of resolutions with only one item in each category? What would happen if instead of promising to lose weight, get in shape, quit smoking or drinking, becoming a vegetarian or vegan, and getting finances in order, we just picked one of these to eliminate from our lives? What if we chose one resolution to start, such as becoming a vegetarian or going vegan? What if we looked at one item that we did well in the year 2021 that we will keep doing?
Moving forward in the spirit of positivity and optimism means acknowledging what we do well. At times, this might seem hard to do or even culturally wrong to do for a few reasons. First, it is far too easy to see through the lens of everyday life what is going wrong or what we might wish we did better.
Second, like many, I grew up in a family where modesty included not bragging about one’s strengths; overall, you just got on with life and used your talents for the betterment of family and society. Expectation of public acknowledgement of individual strengths is a more-common phenomenon of the recent past.
This is a time to find one thing that seems to come easy like the ability to make something with one’s hands such as making furniture, crocheting a sweater, or painting a portrait. Perhaps you cook well, have patience with young children, or excel at putting together puzzles. We all have strengths; often, they are invisible to us because we use them so well that they are second nature.
As we continue into 2022, we can embrace and enhance the strength we find or rediscover to keep the flame of celebration going.
Finally, the pandemic has highlighted the long-term toll on mental health. Our thoughts affect our feelings which direct our actions. Sometimes this is a conscious movement; at other times, it is unconscious. Recent and current stresses affect what and how we are motivated to take action in the form of pursuing goals. When we take the time to review our immediate past from the year 2021, we are ready to venture into the year 2022 with faith and hope.
In less than one week we lost two beloved icons, Betty White and Sidney Poitier. Masters of a craft that conveyed emotion and powerful messages to a worldwide audience, their work in television and in motion pictures made us laugh, but they also forced us to consider uncomfortable subjects. Although White may be best known beyond her acting for her animal advocacy, like Poitier, she was an individualist: both actors negotiated their professional lives in everyday support of many causes including civil rights. From the final letter in his book, Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter (2008), Poitier noted the following that sums up where we are now in the world: “Hope is the eternal tool in the survival kit for mankind.”
As we embrace the gift of Janus, we have the ability to reflect on the past, and to face the future with optimism and positivity simultaneously. When we choose hope, we release the shackles of anxiety and fear that cling as residue to our memories of the past year. I think of the car wash, and taking those thirty seconds to pause in the car. When we let the calm of the passage from the year 2021 to 2022 flow over us, all we have to do is sit, breathe, and let the blower do its job.
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