photo by Li Hui
This week, I reflect on the nature of new endeavors and my relationship to beginnings. It seems that new endeavors are either tinged with an air of creation or destruction, inexplicable humming denoting its resonance of becoming. It’s as fundamental as the circle of life, and while trivial, I do get hung up wondering: Where does an idea begin? And why does it feel so significant?
Is the beginning seeded within our moments of decay and destruction in which we make space for the new to come through? Or is it in inspiration, the magic spark of universal thought? More likely, it lives within the numinous middling that is both. It makes me think of all the eggs I may be carrying in my body, technically half the DNA of a person. Half babies. Not yet accounted for in any particular way besides begrudging bloody drips that fall alongside the moon cycle. Simply the potential of a thing.
Our thoughts have a similar nature. Without the dynamic addition of action, thoughts become a half thing, easily discarded, dried out, or shed. Only through responding to thoughts with our actions do they become tangible and identifiable: transforming into habit or creation or any birthed extension of our being. But is that it? Is a baby just the pairing of DNA? Is our existence simply the acting out of many thoughts?
Perhaps, the true beginning lies at the juncture where two entities converge. Two elements unknowingly yearning for each other – like a key and a lock. Or opposing magnets that together forge a mystical x-factor. Without the presence of the other, one remains largely dormant. Because it is in the magic of “unlocking” that both a key and a lock are activated in their brilliance. So, to unlock, give birth to, and amplify our own beginnings, we must seek that je ne sais quoi that defines a thing.
In celebration of overthinking, I challenge myself to follow the path of potential births, simple and profound, by actively cultivating this search. The search for the unseen thing that gives life to thought and intention to action. The bridge that gives reason to beginnings, for with no need to cross a river, why would we ever try? Curiosity, perhaps.
If interested in following alongside my rhythms of half-thoughts, musings, and spiritual reflection, join my substack. Welcome.