My lovely calendar whose wisdom I have passed along in these pages before offered this message today: ” Have beginner’s mind today about something.” I smiled when I read it because I had just returned to the house after seeing a few of the neighborhood children off on their first day of school. Most had had a first day of school before but one was a first-timer, a kindergartner. Watching them gather and place their backpacks in the line that would lead them to the bus, I thought of the many things they would be experiencing, the many beginnings that were about to occupy their minds.
Thinking about their upcoming adventures led me to ponder what it might mean to have a beginner’s mind again.My prayer is that a beginner’s mind is an open mind, one that is not filled with preconceived notions as to how things might go or, even worse, how they should. A beginner’s mind does not carry many ideas of the right or wrong way something must be done but is instead filled with a curiosity that leads a person down new and unchartered paths. This kind of curiosity almost always has room for creativity and often is the place of discovering fresh ideas, new thoughts, better ways. These are the hopes I have for all those beginning their new year of school.
An experience of beginner’s mind is often difficult to walk into as an adult. It is too easy to fall into patterns of the same old, same old, every day. Getting up on the same side of the bed, having the same breakfast as yesterday, driving the same route to work, moving papers from one side of the desk to the other without any thought of trying something new. It can be difficult to remember and tap into that source of being a beginner at anything.
But what if at least one day a week, we got up and decided it was ‘Beginner’s Mind Day’? What if we walked into the day without any preconceived ideas about what might happen or how the day would go? What if instead we saw each and every activity of our day as a first-time? Would we choose to brush our teeth before our hair? How would coffee taste without cream or with sugar, or in some way different than yesterday’s cup? What if I took the longer, more scenic route to the office? What might I learn about the morning,about myself? What if we declared, say, Tuesday as the day we would do something in a completely new way or, (heaven forbid!) do something never done before? What about taking the task you do without thinking and pay particular attention to each and every detail? Would you enjoy it more or choose never to do it again?
See all the questions ‘beginner’s mind’ can bring to birth? I hope the young ones headed off to their first day of school arrive at home overflowing with a mountain of questions of their own. It is always good to begin a new year of learning with lots of tantalizing questions floating about in your head. I hope their beginner’s mind got a good work out today leaving them pumped with excitement about what beginnings they will embark upon tomorrow.
Beginner’s mind almost always requires a letting go. Letting go of control. Letting go of perfection. Letting go of striving. Letting go of order. Letting go of the past and the future and being present to the time at hand. Which is, after all, the only time we can be certain of. This letting go was brought home to me just as the children stepped onto the bus this morning. As I watched from my front door, the bus pulled away filled with a community of beginner’s minds. As the motor roared and the familiar yellow rectangle moved down the street, a cascade of red and yellow leaves let go from our maple tree, falling silently and gently to the waiting ground below.
Beginner’s mind was revving up in the letting go of this new season.
