New Year’s Poetry and Quotations (January 2014)

Susan's Thursday morning note January 9, 2014
New Year's Poetry & Quotations

Good morning!  So cold.  So still.  Filler in the perfect cup of coffee.  Peaceful moment.  Again, the angel of dawn has handed this gift of today.  This gift of a whole new year.  The chance to put so much into perspective again.  Below are two poems on the new year that have stayed in my mind after reading them.  One on making my main desire to have the decisions and actions of this year please the “Master of my Soul” and the second the wish to keep in this new year what I treasure from the past years.  Following the poems are quotes that are timeless.  Poems on having this be a time for new pages to my story.  Our stories.  Our songs.

What Is This Coming Year? by William Olney

It is a door,
By which we reach new fields
Of service for our God and fellow man:
A door by which we can 
Explore
Wide spheres of usefulness
Our world to bless;
And reap the sheaves God’s Word of witness yields.

It is a task,
Set by the Master of our souls,
A little part of our life’s work below:
And so we ask
The holy wisdom, which alone controls
Our labor, teaching what and where to sow:
That the year, at its end,
May show God’s glory and man’s profit blend.

It is a book,
Which many pages and as yet all white,
On which to write
The history of thought, and deed, and word
In this new group of days.
We pray Thee, Lord,
As Thou shalt look
Upon the book, when written o’er, may all be to Thy praise.

To the New Year by Laura Simmons

O young New Year, take not these things from me - 
The old-time faiths; the shining loyalty
Of friends the long and searching years have proved -
The glowing hearth fires, and the books I loved;
All wonted kindnesses and welcoming;
All sure, hard-trodden paths to which I cling!

O blithe New Year, glad with the thrill of spring - 
Leave me the ways that were my comforting!

Your success and happiness lies in you.  Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.  Helen Keller

Resolution One:  I will live for God.  Resolution Two:  If no one else does, I still will.  Jonathan Edwards

May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.
            D. Simone
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.  T.S. Eliot

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.  Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolution.  Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.  G.K. Chesterton

Our new movement in our songs of life.  Minor keys.  Beautiful sections.  Harsh tones.  Rests.  Our musical pieces continue to play.  Life.  The angel of dawn continuing to hand us this gift each morning.  Will we remember daily that only one grain of salt passes through our timepiece at a moment?  To try to concentrate on that one grain instead of all coming and that have already passed?  Will we realize each night we will be writing our epitaph of the moments we were given today?  Will our moments be worthy of inscription in stone?  Time….the winds of time continue to blow…beautiful life.  Beautiful gift.  Thank you for letting me enter your Thursday.  Thank you for coming to our store for your gifts, your coffee, your friendship.  How I love having our store.  Have a beautiful new year.  Regardless of what notes are playing in your particular song, always remember the promise, a look into the heavens will bring a peace that no one can understand.  A drop of only one foot to our knees will again bring us an eternal perspective.  The eyes of those we meet.  The clouds.  The sunrise and sunsets.  Constant gifts from our creator to keep us remembering what truly is life.  Beautiful life.  Susan