habits

Beginning something new is a thing, isn’t it?   Sometimes it’s something simple and exciting, like picking up a new book or trying that new restaurant in town.

Other times it’s more like that blank piece of paper waiting for the first brilliant word or the desire for that first note to break the silence with meaning – daunting, sometimes overwhelming.

Leaving all those expectations aside, what’s beginning really about?  How do we find meaningful beginnings?  How do we find beginnings that will lead to something?

If we want to begin something new, we’re looking for the opportunity to see the world in a different way, to experience ourselves in a new way.  How do we do that?

Well, one way is to just stop and look around.  Even if you haven’t left your house for months, what haven’t you looked at lately?  How often do you look up?  What does the top of the refrigerator look like?  What’s down by the floorboards?

What if you turned yourself upside down to look around?

We really get set in habits and patterns, don’t we?  So we can support a new beginning by breaking our visual habits.

How about we look at those great expectations?  What if, instead of grandiose plans, we focused on changing habits?  Small ones, even.  Like the small changes you can make in noticing the world around you.

I’m sure you’ve heard some version of the butterfly/tornado story by now.  Just as a reminder, the poetic version of “small changes can have big effects” says that if a butterfly in Brazil flaps its wings, a meteorologist in Texas will have to change his forecast to include a tornado.  Welcome to non-literal chaos theory.

So, if you’re ready to take off into the whirlwind of growth that Spring promises each year, how about making small changes in the way you pay attention to the world around you?  Let a small change in habit be your breakthrough to a new beginning.