Thoughts on the New Year ~

I must admit, that this post, with its ruminations on the New Year, is coming a little late.  What with leasing a new place 400 miles away, packing up an entire 2 1/2 bedroom apartment, moving, and unpacking — all this during the holidays — its taken some time just to process.

But now that most all the boxes are gone, my husbands paintings are up, and just about everything has found a place, I’ve had a moment to take a breath and think about the New Year.  So much is written about New Years — what are we resolving to do this time around, what should our resolutions be — what are celebrities planning to do, what can we expect in 2010 . . . But truly, it seems that all we really want is something better to look forward to.  That this new year will bring us closer to realizing our dreams, that we will come home safely from any troubles we have had, that prosperity will be ours, that our hearts will be filled with happiness and that perhaps sometime in this next 12 months we will find whatever it is that we’ve been yearning for.  No resolutions necessary.

And so I found this poem by the brilliant David Whyte — somehow it seemed right for the New Year.

The Opening of Eyes

That day I saw beneath dark clouds

the passing light over the water

and I heard the voice of the world speak out,

I knew then, as I had before

life is no passing memory of what has been

nor the remaining pages in a great book

waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.

It is the vision of far off things

seen for the silence they hold.

It is the heart after years

of secret conversing

speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert

fallen to his knees before the lit bush.

It is the man throwing away his shoes

as if to enter heaven

and finding himself astonished,

opened at last,

fallen in love with solid ground.

– David Whyte

from Songs for Coming Home

©1984 Many Rivers Press

Posted: January 4th, 2010 under Uncategorized.