For me , this short poem is full of hope about the limitless expansion (BB p.275) of this new ‘design for living’(BB p.25) the program offers us. Bill W describes it this way in the Twelve £ Twelve (p.15)
“A.A.’s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.”
I find a connection between this new beginning and the simple start suggested in the 3rd step prayer … ‘God I offer myself to you; to do with me as you will. Relieve of the bondage of self that I may better do your will.“ (BB p.63).
This poem has also be added into the growing section of the gugogs.org website for ‘Recovery Poems & Quotations’ – Bruce M.
For A New Beginning
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.