It’s Samhain, Halloween, the end of the year by one calendar. An excellent time to look back and see what is working from the past year, and what isn’t, and what it’s time to be done with. One fun little way to make that concrete is to write down what you’re done with and burn it in a backyard bonfire. We’ll be getting some dry firewood for ours tonight, since all the wood out back is soaked from rain.

A year ago pretty much nothing was working for me, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next. I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep writing. Or if I could keep writing, even if I wanted to. I did know what I never wanted to allow again, and that’s valuable to learn. I approach my writing business differently now as a result.

But last year’s “done with it” led to this year’s happy writing, and who knows what the next year will bring? You can’t move into something new if you’re still hanging onto the old. So now’s an excellent time to evaluate a little, to see what’s not working, and write it down and throw it into the fire, and mentally let go of it. New ideas, new work, new opportunities are waiting, just ahead.

It’s also a good time to celebrate everything the year’s brought. What have you harvested?