SEPTEMBER EDITOR'S NOTE
When we grow our baby teeth, we start to lose them at the age of 6 with our last baby tooth falling out at age twelve. As a child when my teeth would become loose enough to extract, I would go into the bathroom, lock the door, and climb on to the bathroom sink to get closer to the mirror and pull yet another due loose tooth. That was my first encounter with death, rebirth, and new beginnings. It was as if it was just too clear that life and death couldn't exsist without one another. And right behind it you can ALWAYS count on a new beginning.
I remember wanting to recreate the feeling of change and new beginnings over and over. Young me wondered "How does this death, rebirth, and new beginnings thing apply to other parts of life? Can it?"
The answer is yes. New beginnings come to us sometimes in form of a decision that needs to be made, while others come to all of us collectively like midnight on New Year's Day. Some new beginnings we have no control over like the new beginnings that come from the death of something or someone.
Being my own dentist at the tender age of 7 and going through this naturally gnarly process alone helped me come to appreciate what I like to call "local" new beginnings, the type of new beginnings that don't require a December 31st or a trip across the world to experience. When I started to apply this 'new beginnings' concept to my very young life, soon, even wearing a new sweater from the GAP to school felt like a new beginning to little me. New beginnings have never been about deleting and restarting, or forgetting in order to overcome to then start anew. It's always been about when you choose to stop and when you choose to start anything. For example, every morning, there is a new beginning at your window, wherever you are.
photo: loyal nana
You can have new beginnings with old things and people, too. All it requires is a pivot, a different spin, a new approach, a new start. In basic terms, a visit, an apology, a phone call, acceptance, forgiveness, progress, etc.
Some of my recent new beginnings include a new stove, an unfortunate newly discovered love of junk food and YouTube (not always together), and the discovery of new perspectives on love, like true love being about loving without expecting anything in return, and discarding the heroic ‘tude around it.
Who am I right now? I don’t know, but I do know that new beginnings come with A LOT of acceptance and A LOT of courage. And for that I am always game.
Y'all know the vibes,
Amanda Saviñón
Founder, Loyal Nana