Even though I have not worked as a high school teacher for 4 years, I still get that back-to-school feeling in the autumn. It feels much more like a time for fresh starts than the New Year. Our New Year Resolutions demand willpower, a sense of “I really don’t want to do this, but I SHOULD”, but our September stirrings feel gentler. For me, it is a sense of “what is wanting to emerge now?”
As the days lengthen, it feels like time to turn inward and to contemplate “what is next for me?” In these uncertain, ever-changing times, what can I depend on? What do I need to enjoy a sense of inner peace and happiness, no matter what is happening in the world? And, am I prepared to devote myself to the answers that emerge?
A poem that I have been loving recently is For a New Beginning by 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 be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
I love the line “This beginning has been quietly forming/Waiting until you were ready to emerge.” Am I ready? Are you ready to “”leave what you [have] outgrown?”
Are you ready to “Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning/That is at one with your life’s desire“?
Do you know what that is?
I want to find out what it is for me, in this new season.
If you are ready for a new beginning, come and join me in my private Facebook group Be You. We are exploring new beginnings with weekly themes : this week it is Paying Attention, inspired by Mary Oliver, who said in her poem Sometimes:
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention
Be astonished
Tell about it
You can also download a free copy of my book “Be You, Be Inspired, Be the Change: 21 days of letting go of everything that holds you back from what matters most”
What new beginnings are stirring in you? Let me know in the comments.