For A New Beginning

If anything symbolizes the real possibility of 2018, it was the Golden Globe Awards, and Oprah’s acceptance speech.  Among the many memorable things she said, this one especially speaks to us, as writers:  “What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we have.”

For all those of us who have been disheartened, enraged, and terrified by the political landscape in the U.S, it’s essential to remember that the voices of dissent are growing stronger and louder every day. We find our strength when we find our voices.

The poem I’m offering today speaks to the courage and power that comes when we trust in the risks that we know we need to take, and find

“the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life’s desire.

Where in your life do you sense:

This beginning has been quietly forming

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.”?

Take some time in the next 24 hours to write your response.  Trust whatever comes to you, and let your heart follow the words that flow onto your page.  Five or ten minutes of a free write in response to the poem will be enough to take you to “the out-of-the-way places of [your] heart…where the mind never thinks to wander

Enjoy the poem and writing in response to it.

For A New Beginning

by John O’ Donahue

 

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.