Old year passes,
Becoming yet another ghost,
Withered as leaves,
Crumbled, and carried aloft
By winter winds,
Too soon scattered
By the breezes of Time.Is it truly spent,
Dead and long forgotten,
Living but in memory?
May not reflection
Call it from the grave,
Uncover the gain
Hold it fast
To live again?How has its many waters
Blessed thee and me,
As sacred signs?
Will it, as muse, retain a power
For its having been,
And then no more?What saints and angels
Sent my way,
Colored its day?
In sorrow,
Who came to hold my hand?
In joy,
Who shared my hearth?Were there hugs, and smiles,
And laughter to tilt the scale of grief?
Can kisses and embraces be resurrected,
That fires of love be stoked
To warm and blaze anew?Has my thanksgivings
Been recorded in the pyre,
Written in the embers now glowing
As tiger eyes flashing from the ash.Years come, doomed , too soon to go,
But let them not hurry
To a crypt without a wake.
Drink the happy wine of memory,
Sip, as the seasons turn.
Contemplate and savor
The seasons of your soul.©2011 Joann Nelander
Archive for New Year
Remembering the Seasons of My Soul
Posted in Catholic, Christian, Faith, Prayer & Prose, Religion with tags grave, grief, joy, memories, New Year, Rejoicing, remember, remembrance, sorrow, time on December 31, 2011 by JoannYad Vashem – What’s in a Name?
Posted in Christian, People, Religion with tags Benjamin Fondane, holocaust, Jews, New Year, Old Testament, Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, yad vashem on January 5, 2011 by Joann
Yad Vashem Hall of Names / Wikipedia
As the New Year begins, the Church reminds us of the importance of a name. We celebrate the Octave Day of Christmas, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and on the Monday after the Epiphany we celebrate the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
Octave means eight. The Gospel for the day relates:
“When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given Him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
On this eighth day the infant was circumcised and a name given. The name was so important that it was announced by an angel. So important was the Name to God!
The Old Testament reading from Numbers for this day speaks of another Name:
“The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke My Name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
What’s in a name? Mystery! Holy Mystery!
As we begin our year, and as the liturgical year unfolds, celebrating the History of Salvation, let us remember the inhumane of Human History as well. Herod’s holocaust sought to wipe away all hope for humanity, the plan of the Evil One. that might makes right as the world has come to believe.
Yad Vashem, written sometimes as, Yad VaShem, literally “hand and name” means “memorial.”
In the Hall of Names, the victims of the Holocaust of our time are remembered.
“Remember only that I was innocent
and, just like you, mortal on that day,
I, too, had had a face marked by rage, by pity and joy,
quite simply, a human face!”
Benjamin Fondane
Murdered at Auschwitz, 1944
“If we wish to live and to bequeath life to our offspring, if we believe that we are to pave the way to the future, then we must first of all not forget.”
“If we wish to live and to bequeath life to our offspring, if we believe that we are to pave the way to the future, then we must first of all not forget.”
(Prof. Ben Zion Dinur, Yad Vashem, 1956)
(Prof. Ben Zion Dinur, Yad Vashem, 1956)
Did You Properly Welcome the New Year?
Posted in Catholic with tags 2011, celebration, Didgeridoo, New Year on January 2, 2011 by JoannI’m thrilled by the New Year. Who knows why!
I’m still celebrating on the inside and want to make some noise. Please join me in the celebration. A didgeridoo seems the instrument of choice. Turn the noise sound up high and enjoy a bit of elation.
Ring Out, Wild Bells – Happy New Year !
Posted in Catholic, Poetry with tags Alfred Lord Tennyson, New Year, poem, Ring Out Wild Bells on December 31, 2010 by Joann
Image via Wikipedia
This poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson seems very appropriate for the New Year:
Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred Lord Tennyson
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.
Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Posted in Catholic with tags Advent, Catholic, Christ, Christian, holidays, New Year, Poetry on November 28, 2010 by JoannAlfred Lord Tennyson/Wikipedia
This poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson seems very appropriate for the New Year -the Advent New Year beginning today.
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.
