LAYLA:
This felt like a fitting chapter to choose with a new month just beginning- and a spring one at that. Tiny woodland creatures being born, shoots emerging from the soil, the world stirring from hibernation- ready to bloom once more.
Nature seems to welcome these beginnings in a way most of us can’t quite manage.
Maybe it’s because beginnings are usually accompanied by endings. And human beings tend to be rather resistant to change- especially when it comes to personal growth. To step into a new way of thinking, a new version of ourselves, means letting familiar parts fall away.
When I think about my own experience of growth, I notice how often I try to contain it. I take something new and alive and force it into an already established routine, an old framework. For a while, things feel different- but it doesn’t last. I wonder if there are other ways to incorporate new growth? Is it possible to let that wild, untethered, expansive energy roam free without guiding it back to the familiar?
Maybe it’s fear that keeps us from fully committing to it. The same fear that stalls us at the precipice of new projects and ventures. Taking a first step can be daunting, especially when perfectionism takes hold. We assume that the physical manifestation of our ideas will fall short of our impeccable imagined standards.
And yet, if we let it, what we create might surprise us- might be better than anything we could dream up within the strict confines of our own minds.
For me, this blog is proof of that. Before I began, I worried the endeavour might be pointless- who would read it? Why not keep it safely between the three of us?
As tempting as that was, I’m glad I took the leap. Because pulling 30-60-90 out of the realms of thought and moulding it into reality has opened the door to profound connection, sparked meaningful conversations and reminded me just how fulfilling it is to live deeply.
Oh, and if you’ve been looking for a sign to begin something… this is it.

PATRIZIA:
Whyte describes beginning as an “internal corporate downsizing”, a simplification process aimed at shedding those parts of us that are unhelpful or too afraid to get on board with our desire to take a new step. It’s a comforting and encouraging message that works well when the idea of beginning is born out of personal choice, rather than an imposed necessity, and we need a motivational push to overcome our natural resistance to change.
But reflecting on what beginning means for me, I would go the opposite way and describe it as “upsizing” and “expanding” rather than reducing and simplifying. Instead of looking at it as a process of demolishing or getting rid of old mental structures, I view it as working on extending myself by building something new over and around those well-established feelings and experiences. It is, after all, by preserving the old that I know what and why I want to begin something new.
Beginning is therefore a process of building on existing foundations to learn new skills, behaviours and knowledge. It’s not putting down “old suitcases”, it’s picking up additional new ones, it’s “what-I-was” growing into “what I see myself becoming”.
Beginning is designing and creating new spaces in our mind, it requires vision and an optimistic outlook. Without the mindset to paint the future in brighter, bolder, better colours- be it for a moment or a sustained period- it is very difficult to motivate ourselves to expand from the old into the new.
Beginning cannot happen without the ability to foster our most positive way of thinking when imagining future possibilities.  

BRUNELLA:
According to Whyte, all of us and all that surrounds us are a constant beginning and a continuous renewing. Stability is produced by the circularity of beginnings. As such, beginning is something that exists in the nature of things and makes each of us the initiator of ourselves.
Beginning is difficult, though, and we are reluctant to take the first step. The fear of failing makes us wish for the horizon to stay in the distance. Therefore, a good beginning demands that we rid ourselves of anything that gets in the way and turn fear into a curiosity to explore- the only way to turn difficulty into ease. Whyte’s beginning is the art of inhabiting the present- letting go of the past to let the future unfold.
I also believe that life is not recurring but a constant becoming that makes our existential journey a series of beginnings. There is no definitive starting point, nor a definitive destination to reach.
It is truly stimulating to feel that we are the source of our own transformation, able to improve who we are by renewing and rediscovering ourselves.