Beginnings

Beginnings names the threshold where certainty gives way, but nothing stable has yet replaced it. This chapter holds the experiences that arise when the illusion of control has broken, but a new way of living has not fully formed. The future is undecided here, and the past is no longer reliable.

The moments in this chapter are often brief and intense. They may include admission, fear, relief, confusion, or an unexpected quiet. What defines them is not action or progress, but a shift in orientation – a recognition that something fundamental has changed, even if its meaning is not yet clear.

Beginnings is not early recovery, and it is not a solution. It is the fragile space where honesty first becomes possible, where familiar strategies fall away, and where we stand without the protection of certainty, aware that something has ended but not yet knowing what will begin.