meditation

Music:

• Better Days by Goo Goo Dolls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-kHleNYIDc&feature=youtu.be
• Be the Change by Britt Nicole: https://youtu.be/mHguyidMS50
• A Long December by Counting Crows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrsSbjcKCBg
• New Year by Pentatonix: https://youtu.be/ZsJt7j96n0s
• Next Year by Foo Fighters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1qQuSuQaHY
• New Year’s Day by Bon Jovi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i5fBY3a5Q0
• What Are You Doing New Years Eve by Ella Fitzgerald: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFdfzNMV52Q
• Lets Keep Falling In Love by Pink Martini: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhzJyYeMgA4
• Its Just another New Year by Barry Manilow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSt2td5wwyA
• Celtic New Year by Van Morrison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oq7rvFFIpxk
• Let’s Start the New Year Right by Bing Crosby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEv5rndSeSA

A New Year’s Poem — Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

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 rimes
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.

THE YEAR AS A HOUSE
A Blessing — Jan Richardson

Think of the year
as a house:
door flung wide
in welcome,
threshold swept
and waiting,
a graced spaciousness
opening and offering itself
to you.

Let it be blessed
in every room.
Let it be hallowed
in every corner.
Let every nook
be a refuge
and every object
set to holy use.

Let it be here
that safety will rest.
Let it be here
that health will make its home.
Let it be here
that peace will show its face.
Let it be here
that love will find its way.

Here
let the weary come
let the aching come
let the lost come
let the sorrowing come.

Here
let them find their rest
and let them find their soothing
and let them find their place
and let them find their delight.

And may it be
in this house of a year
that the seasons will spin in beauty,
and may it be
in these turning days
that time will spiral with joy.
And may it be
that its rooms will fill
with ordinary grace
and light spill from every window
to welcome the stranger home.

—  Jan Richardson  ©

Beannacht (New Year blessing) – John O’Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.