It wouldn't be a proper new year if I didn't write a blog post to make sure that don't go more than a year without writing a new one!
I often write a reflection on what has happened in the past year and what I am looking forward to in the next year. However this new year I have been a bit bemused by some of what I have seen on Facebook and in the media. People saying things like '2016 was a rubbish year but now it is 2017 and that is all behind us and we can start afresh'. I get the need for people to have new beginnings. I understand that we need milestones in life. I enjoy the whole idea of having a new book to write your story of the new year and the opportunity to do things differently.
But the start of a new year does not mean that the things that we didn't like about 2016 have all suddenly gone away. We haven't closed a door and left everything nasty behind it so it can't get to us any longer. Those of us who were ill yesterday are still ill, those who have been bereaved in 2016 will still miss those they have lost, people who hate going to work every day will have to go back to work and face their problems this week. We are still going to leave the EU, Trump is still going to be the US President. And people still want to hurt and kill others.
So by all means let us enjoy the opportunity to start a new chapter of our lives today and to write on a fresh new page. But let's be realistic about what the new year brings us after the holiday finishes. I like this poem by Minnie Louise Haskins which she called 'God Knows' but which is more commonly know as 'The Gate of the Year'. It begins with these words:
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.
