The Dharma of Closing the Year

You don’t have to wrap it up in a bow. You don’t need a grand lesson. You don’t have to name what this year meant.

You can just breathe. You can just bow. You can let it be what it was.

Not everything needs to be resolved. Not every wound is ready to heal. Not every question finds its answer by December’s end.

That’s okay.

Zen doesn’t ask you to summarize. It asks you to witness.

To hold what was. To honor what changed. To grieve what didn’t.

Let the year end softly. No fireworks. No pressure. No performance.

Light a candle. Take a walk. Exhale what’s heavy.

Let silence be your ritual.

Thank the days that broke you. Thank the ones that held you. Thank the breath that kept you here.

You are not the same. Even if it feels like nothing changed, you did.

You showed up. You stayed. You loved and lost and kept going.

That’s enough.

You don’t need to write a list. You don’t need to rush into goals.

The Dharma says: Begin where you are. And end there too.

Let this be the closing. Not the fixing. Not the final draft.

Just the breath before the next chapter.

You made it. Not untouched. But alive. Still here.

And that’s more than enough.