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| Image accessed 13 Dec 2012 from http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/11/thursday-think-tank-73-waning-days-of.html |
"...[W]henever you feel urgent or overwhelmed, whenever you feel pressed to figure things out or rethink the unthinkable . . . rest . . . so that the endless beginning--which some call the voice of God--might break through what has happened....
"...And you will wake feeling like dawn."
--Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening, p. 390
This passage in Mark Nepo's day book (from the entry for Nov 27) strikes a chord within me. Until now, I have lived life linearly. I have imagined myself moving from beginning, through middle, toward the end. I look to my left and right and compare my progress with others. I am a little ahead of someone, and I feel proud. I see someone ahead of me and I feel jealous. Sometimes, I am so caught up in the race that days go by and I do not even notice the passing of time. I come home to a pile of unfinished projects and unformed ideas and unrealized dreams. I feel overwhelmed.
Perhaps it is time to begin living more iteratively. Perhaps life is more a series of new beginnings than a linear race to the inevitable end. Every morning when I wake up, I realize I have a new day to make the most of--and so do you!
This Ash Wednesday post is a follow up to my earlier thoughts on Beginnings: