A New Beginning
by: Liane Schmidt
Every day, every morning is a new beginning; a new chance to start again. People often look at the beginning of a new year in such light, but why not every morning? Doesn’t that seem ever more freeing? Or why stop there? Why not “a new beginning” as many times throughout the day as you want?
Life, society and other such factors often dictate to us what life should be, how we should be living it and reminders when we are not “on track” with everyone else. These can be helpful motivating tools, but they can also be restricting, limiting crutches. And, at the end of the day, who really wants to be like everyone else anyhow? Commonality can be comforting, but it can also make one feel like a nameless face in the crowd. No, we are infinitely unique. Each and every one of us. This is why every single moment we live and breathe is precious.
I am a firm believer that when we were children we had “new beginnings” more times in a day than some people end up having from adulthood until the end of their lives. Children get in fights, get hurt and then apologize right away and get on with playing and enjoying their day. They don’t waste time, they know how much they love whatever they are doing and they don’t want to be held down with needless grudges or other such limiting actions. They are genuine in their apologies, in their feelings and their hearts remain unfettered. Their heroes are still fireman, police officers, presidents, etc. Their hopes are idealistic and they still believe in the unending good of mankind.
While some people have been able to retain this hopeful idealism into adulthood, many have lost faith and hope along the way - and with good reason. If you had more than one person lie, cheat, or steal from you - the wise person learns to not trust as quickly, not allow themselves to be so openly vulnerable to the random passerby who could turn out to be their best friend or worst enemy. If you have touched fire once and it burned you, you will no longer touch it. You learn to steer clear of it.
While this seems to be the smartest choice, fire also has its infinite benefits. We need it for cooking, it can keep us warm at night, and so many other life enhancing uses. Though it can hurt us, it can also make our lives better, we just had to learn how it could hurt us and figure out how to prevent that from happening again. We just needed to be careful, keep our eyes open, learn from it and then we could successfully enjoy it as a part our lives again.
In this same vein, there will always be moments in life that will hurt. People do things all the time that they don’t mean to do. A busy day, feeling stressed by a recent break up, a family illness and suddenly you find that they are “stepping on your toes”. They become shorter in conversations, they seem to withdraw and you assume they are angry with you or whatever the case is. These things can feel hurtful, they can feel undeservered, but they do happen; even by our best of friends and family members. But these same people can be there when no one else is, when we need someone there by our side more than anything in the world. These people can become the most important parts of our lives.
I will never stop believing that people do not mean to hurt others intentionally, but there must always be a line that we draw for ourselves. Of course in life, there will always be the risk of getting hurt. Accidents do happen, people do have bad moments, but in the overall picture you know when something just becomes too much. You know when you deserve better. You know when someone just can’t seem to treat you right because they can’t seem to treat themselves good enough. It is not your fault. It is not their fault. People are at different stages in their lives for a reason. All you can do is give everything; give your whole heart and soul and then see what happens. And, when you give all of yourself, you will be surprised to find that you will end up with everything you’ve ever needed and wanted.
Like energy attracts like energy. It’s that simple.
So, allow yourself to learn more everyday. Allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. Let them come to you naturally. But also know that you must participate in life to get what you want. The career of your dreams is great to think about, but if you don’t take the necessary steps to make it happen, it will always just be a dream.
“The only limitations in life are those we place on ourselves.”
Right now - this moment is your “new beginning” - take it. You can have everything your heart has ever dreamed of.
