Our last post was dedicated to risk. This week I thought it appropriate to venture onward with a discussion of new beginnings. With fresh insights handy and in our back pockets on "risk", we are well equipped to tackle "risk's" pesky sister, "New Beginnings".
Let's begin today's reflection with a poem entitled: For a New Beginning (where part of today's title is borrowed) writtenby one of my favorite poets, John O'Donohue:
For a New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
~ John O'Donohue ~
O'Donohue's words of wisdom and hope encompass the many facets that a new beginning can hold. I love the lines, " it watched you play with the seduction of safety, and the gray promises that sameness whispered". New beginnings, no matter how wonderful require change. Sometimes we stay in places that we've long outgrown because they feel safe and to begin something new requires risk. Even when the change is sought after or desirable, the "change" can still be scary. Often times, when a new beginning is necessary or in gestation we are filled with anticipation. In this, we can be caught off guard by the inevitable discomfort of change that even a welcomed new beginning can bring.
A friend recently reminded me that every new beginning requires an ending. Endings, even when necessary can be experienced as losses. It's okay to grieve these losses, even when we are moving towards bigger and better things. Acknowledging the loss and any sadness associated with the loss may lift the burden of guilt that one may feel for the mixed emotions at the onset of a long awaited new opening.
What new beginning is on the horizon for you today? As O'Donohue states, even if the destination is not yet clear... can you trust God and the promise of this new opening?
In closing your reflection time today, meditate on one of Scripture's most profound and simple reminders:
For we live by faith, not by sight- 2 Corinthians 5:7
~"Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning, that is at one with your life's desire".- John O'Donohue~