Begin Again

Lately, it seems that more and more of my friends and ex-students are facing some seemingly insurmountable challenges in their lives. A few have lost their jobs and some have experienced failed relationships. A couple of them lost their loved ones. I don't know if it is desperation that causes them to turn to me for advice or whether they really have faith in me. However, it is difficult to offer words of hope when all they feel is hopeless. They expect answers. They expect things to become undone. They expect to back on their feet again. Sometimes, I would struggle with what to say to give them the light of hope they are looking for. I have faced many of the same challenges in my own life and I remember how empty I felt when someone cheerfully offered words like, "Keep your head up!", "Things will get better!", "Hang in there!" Eventually, I realised that the two most motivating and encouraging words are “Begin again”.

It sounds so simple. Those words might seem useless or uncaring in the darkest hours of one's life. But it is indeed the answer.

All life challenges bring about an ending and the chance for a beginning. A job loss presents an opportunity to start over somewhere else and maybe even in another career. A failed relationship does not mean you are through loving or being loved. It means there are others just like you needing to be loved. Find them. And if you are a person of faith, even death does not mean it's over. It means "to begin again".

To begin again means that you’re not giving up. To begin again means you're trying. You can either start over and live your life again or spend the rest of your life living in the past. It is never the failing that makes us fail. Neither is it the pain or the crying. You can never fail in life, my dear friend unless you stop trying. So whenever you find yourself feeling down, pick yourself up and Begin Again!