I like beginnings. Maybe it's my inability to follow through on things! I hope not.
I remember with delight some of the first days of elementary school. The fall goldenrods and thistles of home always elicited the time to think ahead to the school year. Change was imminent and I had better get ready. Even the air, with the warmth of summer on the wane, spoke of a new season about to set in.
An early black and white photo has me and my three siblings all lined up, fresh brush cuts for the boys, pressed clothes, new book bags, all smiles as we all prepared to leave home for the first day of school one September day. I was so proud of my new pencil case filled with unused pencils, a ruler and fresh, clean erasers.
The beginning of a new academic year elicits different emotions, I imagine. For some, it's a feverish, dizzying time of everything new. For others, it's the same old, same old. Too many people for some, a delight for others. For some it's downright scary, for others downright delightful.
No matter what, beginnings create a chance for something new.
Each day has a beginning. An obvious, and rather mundane statement, I will admit. But, I think that we often fail to embrace the significance of the daily beginnings of our days.
We may often have difficulty dealing with the present moment, with the naked now as some are wont to say. As humans we bear the heavy cross of the pass and the future. So often we
live in the past, imprisoned by words said or unsaid, actions done or not done, sins of commission and sins of omission.
In a similar way, the future may hold us in its grip, imprisoning us in unshakeable worry and anxiety.
In the process we miss the naked now, the only moment that we have. The past is gone, let us learn from it. The future is unknown. Let us live in hope. All we have it now, this very moment to be still and know that God is God.
And so, the beginnings of each day are a privileged moment. That is why the monks of the world begin each morning with sung morning prayer and why countless men and women of faith begin their day with a time of quiet prayer – prayer in the myriad of ways known to humanity.
Beginnings are a privileged time to stop, wait and listen – the beginning of a new academic year, the beginning of a life together in marriage, the beginning of a day about to be lived.
Each day before I rise and put my feet on terra firma, I bless myself. I am not a particularly pious person – certainly not in the commonly understood sense of the term. However, the sign of the cross on my body grounds me for a new beginning. My failures, my sin, my fear, my lack of faith, hope and love – all these assume their place within the overarching love of Christ for me and for the world. This a new day, a new beginning. Who knows what the day will bring. Who knows when the waves of redeeming grace will wash over our tired shores and call us to new life.
A new semester, a new day, … a new beginning.