What is a new year without a resolution? Mine is spare and simple–to have a beginner’s heart and beginner’s mind. Each day upon waking, I wish to be open to the undiscovered, to know less and to want less. Can I see the world as a magical display of wild creativity? Each day, bit by bit, I wish to unlearn who I think I am and cast aside who I think I should be. Each day I will go a way I have not gone before and be open to surprise. As the years flow past, it is easy to habituate to the same old, same old. John Cage famously said, “I can’t understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” If not careful, you might end up confined to your home, going round and round on your private hamster wheel. With beginner’s mind we slough off the old identity and marvel at the world with innocent eyes, open to multiple perspectives, clinging to none.
This year may I live with a beginner’s heart and learn to love the world as it is, taking nothing for granted. With a sympathetic heart, can I melt the hard and fast assumptions I conceal inside and welcome that which I don’t know and can never fathom? Can I be tender with my old wounds, knowing that you also harbor similar hurts? With beginner’s heart, I honor my own wild, neurodivergent self while celebrating the splash of color that makes you, you. This year I resolve to be open to the kaleidoscopic karma that make up the human scene. And most of all, I resolve to see that above and beyond the differences that define us, there is a deep and wide commonality we share. Perhaps this will be the year, with beginner’s heart and beginner’s mind, that we meet in the beautiful, bright space of pure potential, second to none.
