20 Questions for the End of Every Year

This week between Christmas and New Year’s is one of my favorites each year. The Germans actually have a name for it: “Zwischen den Jahren.” It means “between the years.” It’s that threshold in-between space where life slows down, regular routines and rhythms are tossed out, and the usual boundaries between days become blurred.

Each year, I set aside this time between the years for something deeper than the usual year-end review. Rather than letting the months blur into a fog of memory or reducing the year to a list of achievements, I want to capture what mattered—the moments that shaped the year—shared meals and sacred conversations, books that shifted something in me, small joys that kept showing up. But even more than these visible markers, I want to trace the deeper movements that emerged—what I'm learning about myself, how my perspectives have shifted, what questions I'm still carrying.

If you feel compelled to do the same, here are twenty questions to help capture the sacred and ordinary moments of the year gone by and dream about the year ahead. Don't feel like you need to tackle them all at once. I usually spread them out over a few days, letting each question have its time.

One final note: Some of these questions are originals, and others are ones I've collected through the years from those who've pioneered this practice for me, particularly Courtney Martin and Steph Ango.

1. What held your attention or energy this year, for better or worse?
2. What did you do this year that you'd never done before?
3. What book, film, or experience challenged or stretched your thinking this year?
4. What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
5. What song will always remind you of this year?
6. Where did you feel stuck this year?
7. When did laugh the hardest this year?
8. What place or experience gave you the greatest sense of belonging this year, and why?
9. What’s something you learned this year—about yourself, others, or the world?
10. What truth was hardest for you to admit to yourself this year?
11. What are you grieving? Who can carry it with you?
12. When did doubt open the door to something meaningful?
13. What boundary did you set that made a difference?
14. What was one of the best conversations you had this year? What made it so memorable?
15. Where did you find joy, even unexpectedly?
16. What practice, ritual, or habit became meaningful to you this year, and what would you like to cultivate in the coming year?
17. Where did you find rest or renewal this year, and how can you protect that in the new year?
18. What do you want to leave behind as you move into the new year, and what do you want to carry with you?
19. If this year were a story, what would the title be?
20. What mystery or uncertainty are you learning to hold rather than solve?

Again, these questions aren’t meant to be rushed through or checked off a list. They’re here to help you pause—to notice the stirrings of your heart, to remember what’s mattered most, and to wonder about what’s still possible. Some questions might offer clarity or even healing. Others might not land at all—and that’s okay. Trust that God has been with you in all of it.

My hope is that these questions will meet you right where you are, inviting gratitude for what has been, curiosity for what is, and hope for what could be as we move toward another year.