Happy New Year, 2017!

Happy New Year, 2017!

Wishing the Mindful Writers, Facebook friends and family members a year filled with health, inner happiness and gratitude. May you take an inward journey in 2017 that reveals your deepest desire, helps you discover your authentic self and indestructible inner treasures.

Here are photos of this year’s Navreh Thals, New Year Plates. They include our Thal and our daughters’ Thals. A cornucopia of symbolic items, the plate is placed in the kitchen to be carefully looked at the first thing in the morning of January 1 and internalize its message.

Each plate is filled with grains of uncooked rice symbolizing sustenance and abundance. Two small bowls, nestled in the rice, are filled with milk and yogurt. The transformation from milk to yogurt symbolizes technique, time and patience it takes, like making yogurt, for any task to be completed and mature. A third bowl contains sugar and fourth salt. One may choose to add a tamarind pod or couple of red chilies. Sweet, salty, sour and hot represent emotional experiences one may encounter through the year. Such life situations must be accepted and faced fearlessly. A book, notepad, pencil and pen are other items for success in education, learning and gaining wisdom. The final item is a miniature mirror in which one sees one’s reflection called, ‘buth vuchun.’ It is not to see your face but to discover your authentic self.