A spell for Spring Equinox.

For a New Beginning

by John O'Donohue

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,

Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,

Noticing how you willed yourself on,

Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety

And the gray promises that sameness whispered,

Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,

Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,

And out you stepped onto new ground,

Your eyes young again with energy and dream,

A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;

Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

This poem is an invitation to step gently into new beginnings. A reminder that change often takes root long before we notice it, forming quietly, waiting for the right moment to emerge.

I heard these words on my first day of graduate school. Marc Rettig, our professor, began the day by reciting them aloud. I took a deep breath and let them settle within me. At the time, I had no idea how much the journey ahead would transform me. But looking back, I can see how that moment marked the beginning of something profound.

Spring carries the same quiet promise. The slow unfolding, the trust in new rhythms.

My plant babies in my tiny Manhattan apartment, circa 2023.

What beginnings in your life have arrived softly, unannounced?

What is quietly blooming within you, waiting for the right moment to emerge?