It's on the heart of your humble blogger to speak on beginnings. To get a little personal, this month was supposed to start a new chapter of my life, but alas, life saw for things to go in another direction. By no means is it easy, but it means thinking about what that other direction is going to look like. That took me to the concept of beginnings. For me, the new chapter I thought I was going to have is going to have to be rewritten. At the same time, what would have been is something that will always be with me, no matter what step I take.
The typical image of January is New Year's resolutions, which usually implies new beginnings, which usually has the implication of starting off on a clean slate. What if that's not always the case? What if beginning means building on what's already there?
The song Auld Lang Syne is practically synonymous with ringing in the new year. How much thought, though, have we given to the meaning of the lyrics? According to Vox, the lyrics are rooted in rhetorical questions about old friends and old times. In other words, it's saying the old doesn't have to be discarded outright. There are things of the past that have virtue.
New starts can have root in what came before. Whether good or bad, the past has lessons, virtues, and insights on which can be built something new. Again, this may not be a new concept, but it's worth reiterating.
-Ms RanaDee
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then. (Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of Morning
