Good morning…
Her text came in after I had climbed in bed last night. Now I wake in the middle of the night to read her words.
“Happy New Year, Sue!” she wrote. “It has been a whirlwind with joys and sorrows, once again, at the same time. We are blessed with so many loving family members. The beautiful/terrible days of the holidays this year have been really hard. God got us through and I am grateful.❤️🎄”
Mourning a very deep loss, my friend’s “Happy New Year, Sue!” sounds a lot like a poem I recently met.
******
HAPPY NEW YEAR by Donna Ashworth
When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m not for a moment,
expecting this to occur,
for that is not possible,
a year must be all things.
Happiness must come and go,
like the tides and the winds,
just as sadness,
and all the emotions in between.
When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you,
a baseline of peace,
of gratitude.
Because if you can sit with these things,
for the most part,
happiness will thrive,
when it does arrive,
and sadness will know its place in the mix.
If you can nourish these things,
daily,
you will also grow hope,
for it flourishes in such soil.
And hope is the key,
to this enigmatic state
of ‘happiness’ we seek.
When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you more happy days,
than sad days,
more joy than misery,
more laughter than tears . . .
and the wisdom to accept,
that they all belong.
******
I hear Donna’s HAPPY NEW YEAR in my friend’s “Happy New Year, Sue!”
Happiness, sadness, and all of the emotions in between, these ebb and flow like the tides of the sea, like unpredictable wind in our trees. Might we be graced with a base of peace and gratitude? Happiness will thrive as we sit with it all, and sadness will find her place our mix. Hope grows here, in nourishing soil. Perplexing, mysterious, hope somehow flourishes.
When I say ‘happy new year’,
I’m really wishing you more happy days,
than sad days,
more joy than misery,
more laughter than tears . . .
and the wisdom to accept,
that they all belong.
My honest friend and this wise poet touch the same truth. A year must be all things, and the beautiful/terrible days of the holidays can be really hard. Yet, God gets us through and, for this, we are grateful.
God’s powerful promise shines through it all. “I will give those who are weary all they need. I will refresh everyone who is filled with sorrow” (Jeremiah 31:25, GW).
May God’s Word ring true in 2025.
…Sue…
