Opening stage surrounded by desire (7)
I believe the answer is:
infancy
'opening stage' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both states of affairs as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'surrounded by desire' is the wordplay.
'surrounded by' becomes 'in' (being contained in).
'desire' becomes 'fancy' (fancying is a kind of desiring).
'in'+'fancy'='INFANCY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for infancy that I've seen before include "State of early childhood" , "Babyhood" , "beginning" , "Early stages of" , "Early stage of development" .)