By Curswell Tshihwela
As you welcome the New Year, become aware that every day and every moment is filled with opportunities and endless discovery. You can choose to get excited and enthusiastic about things that have never been and move ahead. While many of you might feel jaded with your lives, the past is now gone and the new has come. Old moments will never repeat themselves exactly the same way as in the past. You may still have old habits and structures but you have a choice to move forward in new ways.
The language of “new” beginnings or “fresh” starts is used when expectations are unmet. Embedded in the language and experience is a tug of war between failure and success. Curiously, core expectations that are rarely named, never change. Mostly the unnamed expectations defeat people as “new” beginnings become a deep disappointment. It might be someone working hard to embrace recovery but sobriety disappears despite their and others’ best efforts. It is often a repeating cycle, weighed down by the invisible burden of these expectations. It is the beginning, which transcends all other beginnings. It transforms and releases us from expectations that imprison. It frees us to see beyond the sea of expectations we swim in.
We are freed to see the assumptions and expectations of privilege, experience and culture. Sometimes all we need to dive into different waters is a reminder of our own beginnings. The nature of the cause determines the nature of the result. As such, beginnings can be constructive or destructive, for that matter. Beginnings can serve evolution or involution; they can lead to sublimation or to densification. Ultimately, the energy you invest in your expectations for the new beginnings will eventually yield excitement.
Twitter @Curswell4
