Our original plan for this cafe was to celebrate the new year by acknowledging the passage of the winter solstice. As the days begin to get longer and the nights shorter, our plan was to do a ritual to invite the sun back into our lives. In other words, the idea was to prepare ourselves for manifesting our visions in this new year.

However, as time for the cafe drew near, it felt like it was not time yet to invite the sun back. We felt that doing that would be kind of forced. In some ways, by doing it, we would be capitulating to the over-culture which tells us, "No more excuses! Now that all the holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, New Year - are all over, it is time to get your act together, pick up your list of New Year resolutions, and get cranking!" We felt that it was an artificial imperative based on an arbitrary clock time. The days are still dark and cold, the nights are still long, the desire to hibernate still dominant. So, instead, we worked with the theme of the threshold guardians. We asked, as we reach the threshold of spring, what are the resistances we are facing as we contemplate our hopes and desires for what we would like to manifest in 2015.

We contemplated the idea of the threshold guardian from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. Using the teaching story of sticky hair as a prompt, we meditated on what this threshold guardian looks like in our lives right now (often configured as a scary "demon" figure). Next, instead of trying to fight with and defeating this demon, we explored what this demon might be needing from us, and how by giving it what it needs, it can be transformed into an ally. It was a powerful experience for all involved, and we hope that this work will help us manifest our cherished visions as the year unfolds.