As January comes to a close, I’m reflecting on its significance as a month of new beginnings. School kids began new courses this month. Parents started planning summer vacations. Gardeners marked their calendars with spring planting dates. And New Year’s resolution makers headed to the gym, enrolled in online classes, and finally started cleaning out that room in the basement.

To which new beginning did your heart call you this month? Whatever it is, John O’Donohue offers you courage and hope for the journey ahead.

For a New Beginning

by John O’Donohue (1956-2008)

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 the collection,
To Bless This Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings