Seeds of what will be

What will this day be like? I wonder. What will my future bring? I love this question for the beginning of a new year, a new endeavor, a new world.Posed by Julie Andrews, as Maria von Trapp, in “The Sound of Music” as she is standing, literally, at the gates of a new world – her new life as governess, outside the protected walls of the convent.All beginnings are gateways – all new adventures contain within them the seeds of new worlds. All pilgrims, like Maria, reinvent themselves, and the world.Here at the beginning, it’s peaceful and serene - a white space between what is over and what's about to start. Here, in the momentary out-breath before the next inhale, What seeds are stirring? What ideas, projects, plans are you conjuring under the surface of awareness? What is asking to be planted this season? What is ready to be born?Listen.Silence contains enormous potential. What you do here matters.Listen.What’s on its way?This kind of silence can be terrifying – challenging you  to confront the possibility that you have nothing to offer, no ideas, no vision with which to fill the silence. Facing this kind of emptiness takes confidence, a kind of soul authority. But you will need just that to find what lives beyond the white space of the unknown - the something that is calling, constantly, to you.The courage to meet what callsFind a place where you can sit in silence – alone – and close your eyes. Listen to the silence. What color is it? What shape? What temperature? If thoughts come surging toward you, listen for their message. What hopes come? What fears? How do you respond when they come? How do you feel?Let it flow and listen as it passes through you, around you, beyond you.Question the silence: What is asking to be born?What are you willing to let in?Invite the process - the waiting and listening, the sitting and listening, the opening to the silence - and what lies beyond.