Always, We Begin Again

Benedict’s Rule tells us that “Always, we begin again.”

Beginning is important. Beginning can be exciting and energizing. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and every day on that journey depends on a first step.  Now, at the beginning of a new month and a new year, we continue our journeys in new ways by beginning again.

Beginnings can feel like fresh starts, letting go of what has happened, putting the past behind us. Beginning often has a life and energy of its own.

Beginning can also be a challenge and a struggle. I tend to require more motivation to begin that I do to continue.  I need to overcome inertia, to give up enough control to let things get started. I tend to prefer things orderly, organized, and working smoothly. Beginnings can be messy and cause a lot of disruption.

Thomas Merton, a twentieth century monk and activist, wrote that:

“There are no tricks and no short cuts. . . . One cannot begin to face the real difficulties of . . . life . . . unless one is first perfectly content to be a beginner and really experience oneself as one who knows little or nothing, and has a desperate need to learn the bare rudiments. Those who think they “know” from the beginning never, in fact, come to know anything. . . . We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life.”

Are you a beginner? What are you beginning this month, this year? Where are you going on the journey that begins today?

[Image by Magic Madzik]