Wednesday, September 1, 2021
New Beginnngs
The Rev. Anne Williamson
September has arrived – a time of new beginnings. There are new beginnings for many at this time – for our children and young people, new classes or new schools. There are those going to college, or preparing for their first jobs. And all the teachers and administrators, parents and supervisors who play important roles in making those new beginnings happen!
I was reading a magazine article about September being a time when many make a new beginning, have a clear out, start new projects, and I have entered into that spirit and begun a clear out at home – ugh! Whether it is shoes or books, clothing or gadgets, I find that there is too much stuff in my life…and it creates a distraction…the time I might be spending with family and friends, in prayer or reading the Bible, I am trying to find things in the midst of all the stuff…so I am determined to reorder my life, so that I spend time on what matters, not distracted by stuff, including the boxes yet unpacked from my house move last year!
My sister and I have a practice of saying Night Prayer together and we have been reading the blessings of John O’Donohue over the last few weeks. As we lean in to whatever new beginnings this season offers, with their accompanying joys and the challenges, I offer this blessing to you:
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.
From To Bless The Space Between Us by John O'Donohue