FOR A NEW BEGINNING

John O'Donohue

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 home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

Yes, more O’Donohue, but this poem was sent to me last week by a friend.  She said that to her it expressed a spirit of adventure and growth when the external world can seem closed and stagnant.   John O’Donohue seems to be the man of the hour.

We can be forgiven if we look to the year ahead with less than shining enthusiasm, given the news feeds of the day.  “But then your courage kindled,” he says, “and you stepped onto new ground.”  Perhaps we just need more kindling for our courage, to fire it up and look at it with new eyes and energy.  At least according to John O.

I ushered in 2022 relatively quietly, with a few friends and family and six ‘passwords’.  That, at least, is how I describe them.  Here is what happened:

It was a snowy, sun drenched afternoon on Cortes Island, as we sat around a table sipping mulled wine. We were asked to select a word — one word — that described the trait or quality that we felt would be required for the coming year.  I loved the challenge and knew instantly what my word would be.

However I am going to list the words here in the order in which they were presented. 

FAITH: This is a rather all-encompassing word which can mean different things to different people.  Faith in our self, in God, in goodness and love, or even in the system that seems to be failing us currently.  However, knowing the author of the word, I think it was not the latter but perhaps more a faith in God that she intended.

ECCLESIA: This comes from ancient Greece and means ‘to gather in community.’ We will need to gather, and community will be our strength.  Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese monk, has said that humanity will be saved by ‘sangha’, a gathering of community and not one supreme being.

TRUST: Again, what or whom do we trust?  Is it our own strength and power?  Or is it the power of Love?  I have learned to trust that above all else, but this word was not chosen by me. I think the author of this word was more invested in trusting our ‘self’.  Interesting what O’Donohue says about it: “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.”

PRESENCE: This was my word so I can say exactly what it means.  This quality is so needed in today’s world.  It means to be exactly here and now — with another sentient being or with a situation.  Giving all of my attention in the present moment.  It’s a beautiful gift that we can bestow whenever we wish, not just on another but for our very self.  It keeps us living in the now where the action is.

NOT-KNOWING: How counter-intuitive is this trait in today’s “fear-of-missing-out” world? But we absolutely do not know nor can we know all the truths of daily living on our planet.  And accepting this in a spirit of not-knowing and being content with it will serve us so much better than needing to know the answers to all the questions on a daily basis.

KNOWING OURSELVES AS FREE: This may be the most challenging to explain and to understand because we assume that we are ‘free’.   But humanity has never been without the yoke of some kind of ‘power over’.  We learned to live as a kind of ‘slave self’.  But this is not our true identity.  We are sovereign beings, and in a new and better world we need to imagine our Self as our soul sees us — free to be who we came here to be.

And that’s it.  After each of us offered our thoughts, we toasted it with bubbly as we watched the sun set behind the mountains and slip into the sea.  A memorable, thoughtful closing of the year that was, and a hopeful look at what’s to come.

This is when we need that last verse of A New Beginning, ringing in our ears:      

                             Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk:

Soon you will home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

                             I wish you, dear hearts, a beautiful, new beginning.