A new year. A new website. So, of course, I am thinking about beginnings. Yesterday, I came across (once again) John O’Donohue’s poem/blessing For a New Beginning. I wanted to share it here:
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,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
It watched you play with the seduction of safety,
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 a 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;
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Many years ago, when I was going through a particularly hard time, I lived with this poem, reading it again and again and I even painted it. It’s a powerful reminder that, regardless of our age, we always have opportunities to begin again. This is especially true in art-making. Every time we pick up a new canvas, panel, or sheet of paper, we’re faced with a blank surface and an open question: What will we do? It can be daunting, especially for those of us who work without any preconceptions about where we’re going. We make one mark and that mark invites a second. If we stay in conversation— with ourselves and with the work—something begins to develop.
Trust is essential here. We need to trust that something will emerge that we can work with. We may not like it but we trust that we can change what we don’t like—that each mark is not the end of the story, but another beginning. We begin, and then we begin again…and again.
So often, elders are focused on endings rather than beginnings. What if we shifted that mindset? Art-making is a wonderful way to do just that—to practice beginning, to hold it as a value, and to experience it as an exciting challenge. So, I invite you to pick up a pen, a paintbrush, or an oil stick and start scribbling your way into a new adventure.