It’s spring!
This is a time for new beginnings, new hope, and new appreciation for the endless possibilities we are given each moment to start over.
The power of spring lends us the fresh forces we need to break through and to let go of old patterns. The possibility of making a brand new beginning in life is never greater than during this time of the year. Why is this true? Because spring also dawns within us, and if we will align ourselves with the power of its presence, then the unstoppable principle of rebirth itself will work for us.
The renewing principle of Life is literally seeking itself through us, asking us to open ourselves and receive what will renew us. But, if we would receive this new life, with all its promise, then we must remember one thing: we can only be made as new as we are willing to let go of who we have been. Springtime not only awakens this need within us, but it also grants us the possibility of its realization.
Here is some wisdom of the ages that is always new…
Nothing
in the world
is usual today.
This is
the first morning.Come quickly — as soon as
these blossoms open,
they fall.
This world exists
as a sheen of dew on flowers.
— Izumi Shikibu (974)
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
— Thomas Paine (1737)
So the life of love is hidden; but its secret life is itself in motion and has eternity in it. As the quiet lake, however placidly it lies, is really running water – for is there not a wellspring at bottom? – so love, however quiet it is in its concealment, is ever flowing. But the quiet lake can become dry if its source sometime fails; the life of love, on the contrary, has an eternal wellspring. This life is fresh and everlasting; no cold can chill it. It is too fervent for that; and no heat can exhaust it, its coolness is too fresh for that. But it is hidden.
— Soren Kierkegaard (1813)
We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.
— Henry David Thoreau (1817)
The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn as the round earth rolls.
— John Muir (1838)
As one beholds through a small window
A single green leaf, a small patch of the vast blue sky,
So I began to perceive Thee, in the beginning of
All things.
As the leaf faded and withered, the patch covered as with a
Dark cloud,
So didst Thou fade and vanish,
But to be reborn again,
As the single green leaf, as the small patch of the blue sky.
— J. Krishnamurti (1895)
When we look out at the world today, we see the replaying of ancient battles without cease. People won’t be new, and they won’t let anyone else be new.
But we can be different. If we would at least become aware of the shackles we carry of old beliefs and old resentments, that would be the beginning of their loosening. And that could be the start of a new relationship with life, and with one another.
Here Is Helpful Wisdom for Starting Over Right Now!
Starting over every moment of our lives should be the most natural thing in the world for us. But it isn’t, is it? Everything in our past calls to us, luring us into its old entanglements. But our growing awareness can free us of the trap. OneJourney founder Guy Finley has some words to help you use each moment as a springboard into a new life…
There can be no starting place in our lives any truer than what our own awareness of the present moment permits. This friendly fact tells us that our life direction, our actual destiny, is determined by the level of our awareness that attends the full range of each step we take.
— Guy Finley (1949)
Do you have a quote from your own tradition about starting fresh? If so, please visit the link below to submit it to the OneJourney Living Book.
https://onejourney.net/submit-a-quotation/
Best wishes,
Dr. Ellen Dickstein
The OneJourney Project
