Do you know that you can, we can, begin again anytime. That actually the whole energy of life is inviting us every moment to start anew. And at this middle place before the new year starts this week there’s a real opportunity, I know I’m feeling this really strong opportunity, to begin again.
In many ways, it feels like this opportunity was launched back in 2020 during the pandemic. And I love that I have this paint by number behind me of the tree of life, given to me by the organist at the Swedenborg chapel who did this during the pandemic picked up a new hobby. You know, so many of us during that time of lockdown began again, tried something new in this weird moment when we weren’t able to do the things that we were used to doing.
And in some ways it was this global reset experience, 2020, this jolt that gave many of us an opportunity to consider what we really cared about. What really mattered. What we really wanted. And even perhaps what we most essentially were. These kind of deep existential questions about why we exist and what it means to live on this planet.
And now almost six years later, some of us are living into the answers.
I know that’s what I’m preparing myself for as I step into this new phase with the Helen Keller Spiritual Life Collaborative, with this new series on creation, these new emerging collaborative spaces where we can gather together to try new things. To write. To paint. To explore inside. All of it. It’s sort of a workshop, a space to explore how we might begin again, how we might be made new in new ways.
The invitation to begin again is really at the heart of most of the world’s spiritual traditions. Certainly it’s the heart of the Christian tradition for which we all just celebrated Christmas and the birth of the Lord.
It is this invitation to be born again, talking about beginning again, born again, to return to being like a child, to invite heaven inside of us, inside of ourselves. And for me as a member of the new church a community gathered around a vision of an entirely new way of being that wasn’t just going to come into one individual but into our entire species a whole new paradigm of life you know it’s all about beginning again. It’s all about stepping into an unknown and leaving behind old ways of doing things. Old ways of believing what has to be or what should be. Old limited perspectives on who we are and who we can be.
And so it’s, it’s a thing. It’s a moment. It’s a real invitation that for my money promises everything. It promises all that we long for. All that we hope for kind of lives beyond, past this veil of what we believe everything was and would always be. It takes courage to step out into the unknown, it takes faithfulness. AND for many of us, we really don’t have a choice anymore because the things that were known are slowly and sometimes quickly falling away. The things that gave us a sense of stability and structure are just, they’re just not doing it anymore. So this choice to step out into the unknown is being made for us in many ways.
The thing that we do have a choice about though, is can we step out into the unknown with that grounded trust that that is the step to take. That that is the step that the wise ones have always told us we are to take. Can we step out into that unknown with a sense of faith and confidence that God is with us, that this is where goodness lives, that this is the divine choice.
So whatever ways you’re stepping into this new year, whatever ways you’re seeking to begin again, I just want you to know that I am with you. I think so many people are with you. You’re not making this step, you’re not making this choice alone. And if you’re longing for some community to step out into this newness with, come join us, in this new endeavor of the collaborative.
Come join us and paint with us and write with us and explore with us and dream with us. And maybe it doesn’t have to be so scary if we step out into the newness together. Maybe it could be a whole lot of fun. I know that is one of my deep hopes for 2026. More fun. More play, more joy, more of the stuff of childhood. If we are going to be like children, if we are going to see the world in new ways, curiosity and play and experimentation are all going to be needed.
So friends, may you begin again this morning and every moment and I hope to see you along this 2026 journey along this creation path.
I hope to have the chance to begin again with you and see what newness invites us.
Blessings.
