Always, We Begin Again

(Lessons from a Monk)

Have you recovered from the holidays? It takes me until mid-January to resurface. 

I told myself I wouldn’t do it this year…and then…I did it again, piled on self-imposed pressures to make a “picture-perfect” Christmas, as if that could cover the reality that we’re all just limping along. 

This year, one of St. Benedict of Nursia’s rules for his monks resonates with me.

“Even when we fail…always we begin again.”

Jonathan Rogers in The Habit Weekly newsletter quoted from Kathleen Norris’ book, Acedia and Me:

When I fail, as I must, I can only recall the desert monk who told his disciple, “Brother, the monastic life is this: I rise up, and I fall down, I rise up and I fall down, I rise up and I fall down.”

I love Alabama in January. Emerging from the dead leaves and fallen pine needles, the Lenten roses, daffodils, and paperwhites rise up and bloom in the dead of winter. God’s creation teaches me that we rise again and again.

Be like a monk. Even when you (fill in the blank), always begin again.

For me, it’s a reset to stop stupid eating and worrying (p.s. I get a lot of practice beginning again here). Detox from the picture-perfect illusions I scroll through on Instagram. Come out of hiding from God and others. Write, take photos, and do slightly scary things out of my comfort zone (like this newsletter). Remember to be gentle with myself and others. Get out of my head and into nature to see those daffodils as God’s kind reminders. 

If I can begin again, what else can I do? 

I can love again, forgive again, believe again, hope again.

Because, think about it. What is the alternative to not beginning again?

What have been your resets for the year? Where would you begin again?