Be Still in Haste, Wendell Berry
Meditation
I’m enthralled by mornings, by Mondays, by fresh calendar pages and their shiny new months, New Years Day and birthdays. Fresh starts fill me with hope for the person I imagine I could be, and I envision that if I could just begin again (just once more, I swear) I would finally be able to do it right. Whatever “it” means.
But come Wednesday, come the second week of the month, come February, I realize that the “fresh start” I’m seeking is arbitrary. The inspiration to eat healthier, exercise more, save more money, spend more quality time with friends and family, work harder, the “it” that I’m trying to accomplish, doesn’t need to wait for a fresh start. In fact, the fresh start can be whenever and as often as I choose for it to be. The great beauty of life is that we can begin again and again, reinventing ourselves, changing careers, loving deeper, or accomplishing as much as we wish – but there will always be more to strive for come the turn of the calendar. It’s “this moment, this moment” that brings us to the present, encouraging us to soak in the precious here and now, rather than waiting for the right time to begin.
Brianna Curran, Washington, DC
