I hope you enjoyed John O'Donohoe's poem, For A New Beginning.
It really resonated with me, mainly because of the changes and transitions that Nicole and I have navigated over these last few years. Back in October 2015, I was at Phillip Island with some pastors on a two-day retreat. Early one morning I went for a walk on the beach and down to an area where there is a heap of rock pools. I took the photo below on my iPhone.
You can see in the foreground this beautiful rock pool which is a complete eco-system, teeming with life. For any fish or marine life in there, that is their entire world – and it is a BIG world to them. But an outside perspective helps you to see that there are other rockpools, some of them smaller and some of them even bigger. Then if you dare to look right to the horizon, you will see the ocean. Now there's an even bigger world!
Each of us lives in a context, an environment, a rock pool if you will. We need to find a sense of 'home' there and be rooted and faithful to that world in which God has placed us. But at times, God calls us to leave our comfort zone and move to other places – to another world.
All of these thoughts and insights as I stood on the shore that morning were part of the shaping of my own journey and eventually led to me deciding to leave the world I had been a part of for over 30 years.
That day, as I contemplated all of this, I wrote the following poem – A Bigger World.
Seems so big
Everything that is
My world
Seasons come
Seasons go
It's all I know
Yet there's more
So much more
Small world
Stay and shrink
Leave and grow
I don't know
Called to stay?
Or chase my curiosity?
Big decisions
Time to leave?
Or stay the course?
Hard to know
New perspective
Larger horizons
The Truman Show
Fear or faith?
Stay or change?
The Village
New worlds call
Adventure beckons
Freedom song
Out of the box
Break the mold
It will be different
Leap of faith
Faith of leap
Liminal places
Let it go
Don't hold on
Opportunity knocks
Necessary endings
Possible beginnings
Transition time
Out of the cocoon
From dark to light
Metamorphosis
God's world
Bigger world
My world