We often think of a “new beginning” at the start of some declared change.  You are beginning a new job; moving to a new home; starting a new relationship; retiring from a long career.  Certainly, those are indeed commencements, signifying a transition of some sort.  A fresh professional start, a new house to decorate, a new love to explore, and a much deserved professional shift.

Other “new beginnings” sneak up on us–sometimes when we’re not looking for them or when we least expect it.  We feel a restlessness, a rumbling somewhere deep inside us–almost like the tremors of an earthquake.  There is somewhat of a deep fault line in our soul and our tectonic plates start shifting.  Perhaps we desire a new way of living and/or we feel a dissatisfaction with our current circumstances.  We know something needs to change although often we’re not exactly sure what or how.

For those of you feeling that rumbling somewhere inside–that restlessness of dissatisfaction with status quo or excitement of seeking a new way–this John O’Donohue poem is for you:

For A New Beginning

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 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 be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

John O’Donohue