“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier.’”
These optimistic words penned by Victorian-era poet Alfred Lord Tennyson evoke the positive connotations that accompany the beginning of a new year. Such optimistic words encourage us to hope and dream about what might be written upon the unspoiled vellum that is the days, weeks and months ahead.
As I reflect upon last year, I am thankful for the many blessings received. So, too, I contemplate the challenges of the past; the flotsam and jetsam, carried by political and social currents that brushed against my hull. There were so many undercurrents; especially from southern climbs. However, through the lens of appreciative inquiry, I purpose to carry forward the best of the past year. I ask myself, what have I experienced and learned that will help me be a better person? How might I commit to making our world a better place?
T.S. Eliot’s Four Quarters, four interlinked meditations focusing on human relationships with time, the universe and the divine, inform us that “last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.” The other voice is not referring to someone else, rather, it is a challenge for each of us to find our voice and to assert with confidence our hopes and dreams for renewal, for new opportunity, and for growth. To this end, we must all be contributing authors to a hopeful story for humanity.
My hope is that the words offered this year will be more than a new year’s resolution to exercise or go on a diet (not that this wouldn’t hurt in my context). My hope is that the words we each contribute to the story of this new year, allow us to confidently voice the sharps and flats of the hopeful songs that will need to be sung in the days ahead.
Tennyson’s poem, Ring out, wild bells!, which was set to music by Charles Gounod in 1880, calls for an end to all negativity stemming from the year prior in favour of a positive disposition for the new year. One stanza, attributed to the tradition of ringing in the new year reads:
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
May crossing the threshold of this new year bring all people of our global village closer together in a true spirit of collaboration, co-operation and compassion. May this new year place a smile of hope on every face! Happy writing!
Tim Cusack is an educator, writer, and member of the naval reserve.
