Loosing Forever, with Half Sigh, Half Gasp

A Psalm for New Year's Eve
by Dinah Maria Craik
1855.

A friend stands at the door;
In either tight-closed hand
Hiding rich gifts, three hundred and three score:
Waiting to strew them daily o'er the land
Even as seed the sower.
Each drops he, treads it in and passes by:
It cannot be made fruitful till it die.

O good New Year, we clasp
This warm shut hand of thine,
Loosing forever, with half sigh, half gasp,
That which from ours falls like dead fingers' twine:
Ay, whether fierce its grasp
Has been, or gentle, having been, we know
That it was blessed: let the Old Year go.

O New Year, teach us faith!
The road of life is hard:
When our feet bleed and scourging winds us scathe,
Point thou to Him whose visage was more marred
Than any man's: who saith
"Make straight paths for your feet" — and to the opprest --
"Come ye to Me, and I will give you rest."

Yet hang some lamp-like hope
Above this unknown way,
Kind year, to give our spirits freer scope
And our hands strength to work while it is day.
But if that way must slope
Tombward, O bring before our fading eyes
The lamp of life, the Hope that never dies.

Comfort our souls with love, — Love of all human kind;
Love special, close — in which like sheltered dove
Each weary heart its own safe nest may find;
And love that turns above
Adoringly; contented to resign
All loves, if need be, for the Love Divine.

Friend, come thou like a friend,
And whether bright thy face,
Or dim with clouds we cannot comprehend,—
We 'll hold out patient hands, each in his place,
And trust thee to the end.
Knowing thou leadest onwards to those spheres
Where there are neither days nor months nor years.

Christrmas Night

Christmas Night
Thomas Hall Shastid
1881

Be peace on earth, good will to men;
And let this now our carol be:
If on the land, or on the sea,
We still will sing the glad refrain;
And in the closing light of day
Good words of peace and cheer will say.

The Babe that in the manger born
Has risen high above the star,
To judge in peace, or judge in war,
To judge at night or judge at morn.
The star that told us of his birth
Has given us joy and lasting mirth.

The Man that suffered on the tree
Is risen high above all men;
Then swell the glad refrain again—
He died for me, He died for thee:
Then peace be ever on the earth
To one and all of human birth.

Winter Solstice, 2016

1620 Hours
Clear
56°F /13°C

December  21, 2016       Rise:        Set:
Actual Time            7:15 AM PST  4:49 PM PST
Civil Twilight         6:46 AM PST  5:18 PM PST
Nautical Twilight      6:13 AM PST  5:51 PM PST
Astronomical Twilight  5:41 AM PST  6:23 PM PST
Moon                  12:14 AM PST 12:34 PM PST

Length of Visible Light 10h 32m
Length of Day 9h 33m
              Tomorrow will be 0m 3s longer

Down from Heaven's Glory to a Manger Bed

Here we are. Another year is floating silently and swiftly to its closing. Truly, as God ordained, "to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven". Whether a fair and bright song raised, or the cry of a dark and dismal refrain, they matter not to the hours that fly. In every circling year new things and lives abound, while the ever flowing tide of time obliterates the footprints of yesterday - "une rose elle a vecue ce que vivent les roses, l'espace d'un matin."

We soon walk onto the pristine path of a new year; sweet is the breath of its first new morn. We seek anew a primrose by a river's brim. A longing to find that yellow primrose, if only it brings a temporal gladness and nothing more. Knowingly for certain, awaiting us to bear at the bend are further Sisyphean tasks roiling with ambivalence, weighting down by wickedly violent Rasohmon POV. These are ever the burdens of Cain in our brilliant but strife-torn Godless world, away from the presence of the Lord.

For this year-end penultimate, may God open our eyes or reaffirm the yearning for an everlasting solace. That Christmas is the birth of Jesus, God's only begotten son, the physician and savior of the soul. Only Jesus can satisfy one's longing for everlasting joy and rest, calm the mind in worldly strife, and make the sinner whole for eternity with Him.

A parting thought on this Christmas season and the closing year,

"Down from Heaven's glory to a manger bed,
Crucified, Glorified; He was born to be our Savior."
In Excelsis Deo.