Your September Meditation: First Days and New Beginnings

The first Thursday of each month I will offer you a meditation to use during that month. Here is the meditation for September. 

The One guiding you leads you into a country fruitful and promising. You are standing on the edge of a good land. Be grateful and never forget your guide. 
                                  Macrina Wiederkehr 
                                  Behold Your Life, A Pilgrimage
                                  Through Your Memories

Our grandson begins kindergarten this month, and he is so excited--and so ready. As he heads into his classroom on the first day I expect his backpack will not only be full of his brand new school supplies, but also a range of emotions--eagerness, along with a touch of anxiety; delight that the big day is finally here, but also an unconscious awareness that there is no turning back now. 

Remembering Firsts
Thinking about the "first day" for Peter, I am reminded of all my own first days of school--both as a student and as a teacher. 
I moved many times as a child and my first days of school were often colored by the fact that I didn't know anyone. I had never been in the school, let alone the classroom. Not only did I not know the teacher, but I also did not know any of my classmates. As nervous as I was on those days, and even as I missed the friends in my former school, I was also hopeful, anticipating new friends and looking for acceptance and a generous welcome.   

It seems to me that most first days or new beginnings, whether a first day at a new job or the beginning of retirement or moving to a new home contain a backpack full of emotions. Such teachers those first days have been in our life. 

 Your Firsts
As you think about your own first days of school, what memories do you have? 
What emotions do you recall? 
How have those same emotions recurred in your life as you have experienced other kinds of "firsts?" 

A Meditation on Firsts in Your Life
I invite you to sit in a quiet place and close your eyes, lightly not tightly. Take a couple deep cleansing breaths and allow your body to relax into slow, even breathing. 

In this quiet, sacred space you create for yourself, allow memories of "firsts" in your life to wash over and through you. Note the feelings you experienced, but then allow them to move on. That was then, this is now. 

As you continue to breathe steadily and evenly, ask your heart to open to a new beginning, a new first day. 

What is yearning for new life within you? What new day, new beginning do you desire? Be with that awareness and the feelings that surround this desire. 
  
What do you need to move forward into the next "first?" Be with this question and open to the possibilities. 

Once again, take a couple deep cleansing breaths and when you are ready, open your eyes.

Take a few minutes to note, perhaps in a journal or by whispering to yourself, what you felt or learned during this brief time of meditation. What will you now bring into your life?

A Blessing
May the memories of the many firsts in your life, firsts you have survived, but also those in which you have thrived, be your teacher and your guide.
May you feel surrounded by a spirit of growth and courage, eagerness and openness as you reach towards a new beginning  and yet another "first." 

An Invitation
I welcome your thoughts about "firsts" in your life and especially your comments about the meditation.