Beginning

 

Habitual doubt can show itself in a number of ways. One of these forms is a kind of unhealthy skepticism that keeps life, relationships, and any vitalizing help at bay.

Gitte Bechsgaard

 

Perhaps the art of harvesting the secret riches of our lives is best achieved when we place profound trust in the act of beginning…To live a truly creative life, we always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening.  There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.

John O’Donahue

 

It takes faith, courage, and surrender to begin. To take that first step into the unknown for growth, for our dharma (purpose in life) even as we do not know where it will lead and what will be asked of us along the way.  We are called into these beginnings from a force greater than our own small self-will.   We might hear a voice in our mind telling us quite clearly that this is the time to start, the direction to go in, the course to take.  And when we have enough courage and faith to follow, something new and rich opens up in our lives.

 

I feel this voice is becoming clearer to me as I have given it more attention over the years.  Attention cultivated through yoga practice which attunes my inner ear to its message.  You might call it the song of the soul.  This innersource draws from a deeper wisdom than is accessible to me through the rational mind.  It is more embodied than thinking. 

 

When you think about the major beginnings in your own life, isn’t true that the pull toward beginning came from a deeper place than the mind you use everyday to decide which pair of trousers to wear or whether to have fish or eggs for breakfast? In some traditions, this is what it means to follow the will of God.

 

I don’t always say yes. But I am more aware of saying no, of what I am turning away from and turning down. I want more and more to say yes to these deeper longings and desires. Because when I do follow them into a beginning, I find the universe offering me up all kinds of gifts to support me on my way.  Gifts I would not have been aware of if I had not begun.

 

These days I hear the voice telling me to work with devotion so that creativity might flow and relationships flourish; walk and walk and walk outside in nature, up mountains and all over the world; practice yoga and pranayama with tenderness and gratitude; love thy neighbor; be kind to everyone; stand up for what you believe in.