May 2022 newsletter

New Beginnings…

“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.”
― Arnold Bennett

With the dawning of post COVID living, many of us are venturing out again, enjoying the environment around us and the people who have been distant from us for more than two years. It is also very clear that spring has eventually arrived in Calgary, although those of you living on the west coast probably have had this for 6 weeks! So new beginnings are all around us.

I want to reflect on Arnold Bennett’s words. Many of my clients are experiencing a new beginning of another kind, and some of them are sad or confused. Without breaking confidence I am aware of some in my circle of friends who have decided to move away, some of you have been separated from friends or family because of COVID; and others are just trying to think of what the next few years will bring. My wife and I have been in “new beginning” mode ever since we retired in January 2021 and I can very much align with some of the confusion you may be feeling. So I want to reassure you by emphasizing the importance of Bennetts reminder to us.

“The next hour (is) lying ready for you, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life”. My emotional tank needs those words today! Who cares about whatever it is we messed up last year/ month/ etc! Unless I have misunderstood Bennett, he is saying that all of us have the hope of the future. None of us should believe (or feel) that the die is cast. New beginnings open opportunities for you (and I) to grasp change and thrive with it.

There are a few caveats to the future being different. They include:

1. If you don’t change the way you think/ react, then most of us will continue with the same behaviour patterns that we have used for eons. If we want to see better outcomes in the future, we have to be prepared to change how we think or react.
2. To be able to change our thought processes or reactions takes looking deeply at ourselves, and working on the things that motivate us.

I’ll leave you with the thought that May has ushered in spring and is ready to let you dream about the future. Don’t repress these dreams. Enjoy the summer that is about to open up, and let yourself grow again.

Peter Craighead