Happy New Year!! Welcome, 2017!

Updated from the Archives....

As we ring in the New Year of 2017, I thought this lovely poem which floated quietly in my e-mail inbox, courtesy of Poets.org, a few years ago which perfectly expresses the New Year's cliché of "out with the old, in with the new." After all, Tennyson wasn't one for cliches, thank goodness!

2016 has been a rough year for many others besides us. We nearly lost our home. Keith had little to no work for much of the year. I was overworked, trying to keep the family afloat with working from home while homeschooling our youngest. Those of us with genetic mutations (E, T, myself, and likely B) had a very rough year, both physically and emotionally. Our household has been far less than peaceful. And then there's the election and the loss of many talented people this year, both the famous and the "ordinary." (Not that anyone is truly ordinary...)

So we pray for a fresh, new year with a fresh, new outlook, mindset, and love for God and others.

So as we return soon from the rush and exhaustion and joy and pain that make up the Holy Days with a selection from one of my favorite Tennyson poems, one which always brings to mind my beloved Brit Lit professor, Dr. Arthur Seamans, who used to quote this poem in an appropriately ringing voice:

From In Memoriam by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (published 1849)

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

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.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

So as we ring out all that was evil, injurious, sad, wrong, unjust, hurtful, grievous, and sinful in 2016, may we welcome all that is brave, true, right, courageous, beautiful, holy, lovely, sacred, and godly in 2017!!

From the Book of Common Prayer 2011:

For Guidance
O GOD, by you the humble are guided in doing right; Your light illumines the darkness for those who trust in you; In our doubts and uncertainties, give us grace to ask what you would have us do, so that the Spirit of Wisdom may save us from all false choices; In your light may we see light, and in your straight path may we not stumble; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Sources: Psalm 26.9; 36.9; John 1.5; Jeremiah 17.7)

May God grant us all a healthy and blessed New Year of 2017 as we strive to follow the example of Christ our Lord as we live, serve, and love in His ways.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! And a Happy Eighth Day of Christmastide as well!!

Praying to follow the Light, this year and always,