On January 1st, 2020, I felt unusually ecstatic and joyful. Overwhelmed by the sense of new beginnings and fresh starts. Anyways we don’t get to start a new decade every day. And although it’s just another start of a year and end Of another, it just felt very different. We are built to start fresh and seek such opportunities, and whenever we lose this ability, we should question our system.
Fresh starts are around us, waiting to be noticed. The constant turnover of the night, followed by the day, it’s an opportunity for a fresh start. The end of the week and the beginning of another, the end of the month and the start of another, and eventually the end of the year and the start of another. So, imagine what an end of a decade and the beginning of another can bring.
A blank page doesn’t always mean that you should start from the beginning. A blank page may be part of a notebook with many pages before and after. It might be a structured notebook with colored markers and an outline on the first page. It can also be the first page of a new notepad, or maybe the first blank page after you decided to get rid of all the previous pages.
A fresh start means a blank page, a blank page opens the doors for creativity, forgiveness, and hope. It’s crucial to notice beginnings, make a pause, and think about what are you willing to do today, this week, this month, this year, or this decade.
Being a practicing Muslim, it’s an eye-opener to look at rituals from a fresh start perspective. Muslims pray five times a day, with precise timings based on their GPS locations. They have a special mosque gathering every Friday, a select month, Ramadan, a particular time in Ramadan, the last ten nights in Ramadan, and a special night in those ten, a night with an odd number that keeps changing according to the start of the month. Fasting from dawn to sunset offers an excellent opportunity to anticipate and witness the process of the restart. To feel a sense of time and appreciate it. Muslims do also have 10 extraordinary days in the year that ends with Arafat day, which is the peak of the Haj ritual, which every Muslim is requested to do once in her/his life if she/he can afford it. At the Haj, they reset their lives.
New beginnings and opportunities are all around us, waiting to be witnessed and harnessed. I believe in mindsets, what we do and can do, all lies in our mindset. The mindset of fresh starts offers an opportunity to make a pause, see our true values, and start again.