The end of one year and the beginning of the next has always been my favorite time of year. You get to review the causes made in the previous year and look ahead to the coming effects of those causes in the new year.

I began my day decorating my altar with a kasane offering of mochi topped with a Mandarin tangerine. Funny thing about that tangerine: Normally we get bags and bags of tangerines from the tree in our backyard. The harvest normally comes in around Thanksgiving. This year we had just one tangerine and that tangerine didn’t ripen until this week. Not sure of what to make of that, but there is on my altar.

At 10:30am I joined Rev. Shoda Kanai at the Nichiren Buddhist Kannon Temple of Nevada for the end of year service and the striking of the temple bell 108 times to chase out any lingering bad karma and prepare for the new year.