Reflecting Reading of the Day:

I love all beginnings, despite their anxiousness and their uncertainty, which belong to every commencement. If I have earned a pleasure or a reward, or if I wish that something had not happened; if I doubt the worth of an experience and remain in my past—then I choose to begin at this very second.

     Begin what? I begin. I have already thus begun a thousand lives.

Early Journals

Barrows, Anita; Macy, Joanna (2009-10-29). A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke (p. 1). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island

I Choose to Begin

I love all beginnings. I can relate to this title. I love new relationships and new startups and new books.

Everything is open at the beginning.

Just naming the beginning is a joy of forming a new space to fill with the experiences and with reflections and insights and links to what has gone before.

Yet what a strange word buried in the excerpt – “commencement”. I’ve always thought of commencement as an ending, not a beginning. At the end of college, it is the celebration of an end. Of course, it is the announcement of a new beginning.

I start this new year with the resolve of several simultaneous beginnings – a year of reflections with Rilke, daily blog posts drawn from Emails to a Young Entrepreneur, and the beginning of another new software startup.

Each beginning builds on all the fits and starts of the past. How do I incorporate the best of these experiences or is it immerse myself in the new beginnings and enjoy.

Happy New Year

Happy New Beginning(s)

Reflecting With Rilke

These daily reflections are taken from A Year with Rilke. As I embark on publishing Emails to a Young Entrepreneur which was inspired by Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, I look forward to a daily meditation on other selections from Rilke’s poetry and writings.