PARTY: New Year Ceremony Kirtan and Potluck (@ Kinship Yoga)

As the year wraps up and we move into a more spiritual, more appreciative frame of mind and heart, it's time to party!

Every year we have at least one big bash, and this is it. But we want to be spiritual, mindful, and intentional. So here is what we have planned to celebrate:

• sacred ceremony
• meditation
• eating
• yoga
• singing
• entertainment
• gift giving
• SOCIALIZING.

It's a vegan/vegetarian potluck. Bring something. (Let Stella know). There will be call-and-response chanting (called kirtan in India) led by a Yogini and her guest.

Every activity is optional. No religion or belief system necessary. Bring a Trump-loving MAGA cousin if moved to. Participate in as much or as little as is comfortable and fun.

We want to wrap everyone in our great heart of practice -- ahimsa (harmlessness), compassion, and gratitude for all! This out with the old and in with the New Year party begins with a ceremony celebrating the spiritual.

Then it's call and response singing called kirtan in India. There will be a gift-giving blanket spread out. Bring one or multiple gifts to put on it, even a lightly used thing to put to good use or a handmade craft or vegan chocolate chip cookies or a special object. It's not a Kris Kringle or drawing; it's sharing with one and all. We might give away good incense or crystals.

VEGGIE POTLUCK: Bring a vegan/vegetarian dish to share! It's time to eat and socialize, make friends. Might even take a yoga class before the ceremony. There's a parking lot and lots of free street parking in hipster Highland Park on Figueroa. Metro is nearby.

MORE INFO: Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal (New Year Ceremony Potluck, Los Angeles, 12/17)