Beginnings

C.S. Lewis once said, "With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere". I would like to dedicate this very first blog post to just that; beginnings.

Beginnings are interesting because they are always matter. Beginnings are signs that something different is brought about, points in time that say that from this day on something will be different. It marks the commencement of something unmapped; something involving risk, something unfamiliar. Some beginnings are giant launchpads, like having a child or getting married. Some are more subtle, like taking Spanish classes, starting a blog or even trying a new recipe. The only thing a beginning cannot be is unimportant.

We all know that seemingly random acts take people into things they never would have dreamt about. A simple handshake turns into a life-long friendship or a class on astronomy becomes a journey to the moon and back. All great things come from small beginnings, and from small beginnings come great things. But fact is still fact, people fail to make the most of what comes their way. Wasted opportunities and broken dreams loom over us, and we hustle past, shielding ourselves with umbrellas of "reason" and "rationality". We utterly disregard our possibilities, or we are intimidated and create our own make-believe monsters that prevent dreams from crossing into reality. 

How do we find the middle ground between these two ideas? Does one apply to a certain kind of person and the other to another kind, or are the two somehow entwined? It is important to note that we are never told what could have been. And there is a reason for this: If we all knew the consequences of our inactivity, or activity for that matter, most of us would be paralyzed by regret and fear; unable to go on with our lives. All we can do is ask God to help us make the best of the opportunities that He sends our way, no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, and then use those occasions as well as we know how.

That brings me to the reason for writing this. This blog is a new beginning for me. It is not a big and life-changing decision or something that will drastically alter my path in life, but it is an honest attempt to take myself less seriously and my writing a little more seriously. I feel I am running with pens, and if I do not sit down and take the hood off I might stab myself with one. I do not know what will come of it, but for some reason I think it is the right thing to do. I will not become a great writer over night, but every journey starts with a single step. This is mine.