Life does not just begin once— it begins again and again, time after time.
It has been 6 months since I have (re)started this blog. Within those 6 months, I have not written a single post nor typed even a single word here.
Since I have realised this, I have been left wondering why I have not been able to write here regularly, or to write here at all.
I have a few reasons I suspect led to this outcome.
One reason has to do with expectations. I began this blog with sky-high expectations of what it could be. I wanted to write grand, comprehensive essays on ecology. I wanted to explore the depths of wisdom and philosophy. Sadly, these great expectations were too high a bar to pass, and I was left feeling severely demotivated because of them. How can one feel motivated to scale a mountain when one has not even climbed hills? The challenge I had set out for myself was too big to seem feasible, so I gave up even trying.
Another reason I can think of involves routines. After I had published my first post, I had failed to establish a routine that would have enabled me to write regularly. For example, I could have told myself that I would spend at least 15 minutes working on a blog post every Saturday at 2pm. However, since I did not implement a routine, I never actually spent any time writing.
Last but not least, I have not been able to write here because I have been spending time figuring out my life and living it. Living life is a messy affair and that is not a bad thing; it is just the way things are. I recognise that there have been many aspects of my life I have had to attend to over the past 6 months and I embrace that reality.
It is a fact that I have failed to blog for 6 months. So, what do I do now?
That questions brings me to the topic of this blog post: we need to learn how to begin again throughout our whole lives.
Life is a series of beginnings and endings, unfolding in succession. Every time we meet an ending, we have the opportunity to begin again anew and afresh.
A simple example of this would be the cycle of day and night. Every night is the end of a day. Yet, every night eventually leads us to a new day where we can begin to live again. At the start of a new day, we are provided with a wealth of possibilities that we can choose to realise. What is beautiful is that we are always free to choose possibilities that differ from the paths we have taken in the past.
However, this does not just occur at the start of every day— it occurs at the start of every new moment. Every unfolding moment of our lives presents us with the same opportunity: to break from the past, to dream new ways of living and to pursue that new life little by little. This is the essence of beginning again, even in the middle of our lives.
As I sit at my desk and watch as this present moment unfolds, I realise that I am also being given the opportunity to begin blogging again.
While it is true that I failed to write for the past 6 months, it is also true that I can break away from that trend in the present moment. I can begin again, right here, right now, if I choose to.
To close, let us remember that the present moment is an exciting place— it is where everything happens:
Whatever has happened, whatever is going to happen in the world, it is the living moment… in which we touch life and all the energy of the past and future.
Muriel Rukeyser
Friends, in your journey out of the past and into the ever-unfolding present, may you come to recognise the gift that the present moment contains: a wealth of possibilities that you are always free to explore and actualise.
May you know peace.
May you know healing.
May you know joy.
And may you know love.
With warmth,
Julian
Julian JP Lee 
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