Photo by Rajesh Rajput on Unsplash
I didn’t like being a beginner when I was a kid
You don’t get many nods for being ‘stupid’
My least favorite of my mum’s favorite words were:
“You just gotta accept you have no talent”
Thus, it was hard to admit I don’t know
It was also hard to pretend I know it all
Avoidance is the art of the non-beginner
Beginners who don’t begin at all
It’s just that no one has taught them
that shame is not a conviction for life
Yes, it takes some getting used to
The gashing pain, the inner roar
It’s possible to walk through and begin for the first time ever
Then run back again because it’s f**king hard
Yet do it again because it will still be more painful
To be the beginner who doesn’t begin at all
After some years of beginning, it’s easier to say I don’t know
It’s still better to have some reservations about what I know
It’s not easy to be a true beginner
Because it’s the work of a master-to-be
This — I have learned as a beginner
from the many masters
who begin again,
and again
A true beginner can be a master
but need not be
A true master is a true beginner
and will always be
