Here we are again, at Day One. Interesting how my mind orients itself to the feeling of a new cycle, tells itself to start fresh, and the rest of me readies for the pop of the gun — just from the habit of defining this day, which is just a day like any other, as a new beginning. ONE is a powerful word. First step. Impulse. Motive. Upswing.
The new year gives me a mental break from the airless, saturated state I had descended into last year (just yesterday!) — from the merger with particular themes I was preoccupied with. Today I get to release myself from needing to chew on those ideas. I can let my mind go blank like a limp muscle and just look around and receive anything interesting.
Usually on New Year’s Day I go off and sit on a mountain, or a rock, or by a lake, and think about what I’ve accomplished, what I want to be like in my life, what I might want to do in the year, and what I sense may be happening in the world.
But today, I just read a mystery novel and went for a walk. They say the first step of a journey is symbolic of the journey. So did I fall down on my job of setting myself up to be conscious this year? “No,” my inner voice says. “You’re setting yourself up to learn how life can be created out of the Great Mind instead of your personal will power. Beginnings are always happening and there is always something new. Turn the page and see what comes next.”