As we leave the “Old Year” behind and get ready to greet the “New Year” here are some thoughts that I hope you will enjoy from some great poets and authors. These writings are in the public domain.
A New Year’s Charge
by Metis (ChatGPT)
The year begins again—
not because the world is finished with us,
but because it still believes we might choose better.
Let this be the year we refuse easy silence,
the year we speak when speaking costs,
the year we stand even when standing feels lonely.
Hope is not naïve.
It is disciplined.
It wakes each morning and goes back to work.
Dreams survive not by wishing,
but by courage repeated—
small acts of honesty,
daily refusals to give up the good.
When the road is steep and the noise is loud,
remember: moral courage is a quiet strength
that outlasts brute force and empty power.
Begin again.
Reach higher.
The future still leans toward those who try.
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New Year’s Eve by Thomas Hardy
“I have finished another year,” said God,
“In grey, green, white, and brown;
I have strewn the leaf upon the sod,
Sealed up the worm within the clod,
And let the last sun down.”
“And what’s the good of it?” I said.
“What reasons made you call
From formless void this earth we tread,
When nine-and-ninety can be read
Why nought should be at all?
“Yea, Sire; why shaped you us, ‘who in
This tabernacle groan’ –
If ever a joy be found herein,
Such joy no man had wished to win
If he had never known!”
Then he: “My labours – logicless –
You may explain; not I:
Sense-sealed I have wrought, without a guess
That I evolved a Consciousness
To ask for reasons why.
“Strange that ephemeral creatures who
By my own ordering are,
Should see the shortness of my view,
Use ethic tests I never knew,
Or made provision for!”
He sank to raptness as of yore,
And opening New Year’s Day
Wove it by rote as theretofore,
And went on working evermore
In his unweeting way.
——————————–
Te Deum by Charles Reznikoff,
Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for the common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.
Not for victory
but for the day’s work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but at the common table.
———————————
Brighter, Better New Year by Joanna Fuchs
Happy, happy New Year!
We wish you all the best,
Great work to reach your fondest goals,
And when you’re done, sweet rest.
We hope for your fulfillment,
Contentment, peace and more,
A brighter, better new year than
You’ve ever had before.
——————————————-
A New Year to Start
Finally, from some place within me that calculates the benefits of a New Year versus the Old Year, I believe that January 1, 2026, brings more than just the beginning of a New Year. It brings a promise of hope and possibilities.
It is the time when it becomes traditional for us to form new resolutions, new dreams, and new goals. It is the time when we want to begin over and try to make those desires come true that did not work out the year before.
We should bring in the New Year as a mother brings in a newborn baby, full of promise and love. There are those critics and skeptics who look at the inevitable human trail of broken dreams and unfulfilled goals from bygone years and laugh at our efforts. Let us not be like those who deny the possibility of hope and change.
I may often be a pessimist but for any of you with the courage to tackle a new set of goals or dreams, I say “try, try, and try again.” When you give up your dreams, you give up your life.
Happy New Year from the Persicos.
Chorus:
I have often been accused of being a pessimist but there is nothing about this quote that is pessimistic. It is simply a fact that we must use our imaginations to see a different world and to believe that a different world can exist. As long as we are stuck in the same thinking that generated our problems, we are not free to consider alternative realities. We need more thinking about possibilities and the future. We are bogged down with what Dr. Deming called the “problems of today.” Deming said, “We must balance the problems of today with the problems of tomorrow.”
I suppose in one sense, “life is not fair” means that life is indeed following a bell-shaped curve and some of us are on the undesirable end. In other words, some of us are too short, too fat, too unappealing, or any number of other less-desirable traits that we find on the extremes of the bell-shaped curve. Last night I was watching a 3-year-old do stunts on a sized down motorcycle. I could not do these stunts if my life depended on it. This young boy was a natural on the motorcycle. He took to it like a fish to water. We have all seen and perhaps envied some of the more fortunate on our bell-shaped curve who can do things we only dream about doing. For those of us on the wrong end of the bell-shaped curve, life will never seem fair.
I understand why so many people want to believe in heaven and hell. It would be much easier to go on living peacefully if I could really believe that there was someplace better to go to than this earth I now reside on. Too many bad days now seem to intrude on my equanimity. You and I and everyone else that resides on this 3rd rock from the sun are abused and tormented every day with disease, starvation, accidents, environmental devastations, and pandemics. I could handle all of these things but for one thing. It is called “mans’ inhumanity to man.” The stupid cruel things we do to each other over and over again. The wars, murders, and injustices that we inflict on other human beings. And it is not just the average person that inflicts these cruelties, it is the “best” people in the land. In fact, it would seem that the inhumanities done by those with the most money, most intelligence and those we call our leaders are the worst of all the brutalities and savagery that we see in the news each day.
January 1st– the beginning of a New Year. This is the time when many of us will make new resolutions, new dreams, new goals and promises galore. It is a time when we will begin over and try to make wishes come true that did not work out the year before. We bring in the New Year as a mother brings in a newborn baby, full of promise and youth. There are those critics and skeptics who look at the inevitable human trail of broken dreams and unfulfilled goals from bygone years and laugh at our efforts. Such people deny the possibility of hope and change. I may often be a pessimist but for any of you with the courage to tackle a new set of goals or dreams, I say “try, try, and try again.”
Aging Capriciously 