"Be Bold sang Time this year . . ."

One week into a new year and I think I’m ready to begin.

I have recovered from a very short, extremely busy holiday season and a siege of the Norovirus, a short but violent stomach flu. I have put all celebratory treasures away, praying I’m here to open the boxes again next year. I have cleaned and decluttered throughout my house. I’ve made New Year’s resolutions and posted them where I’ll see them every day. I have amended my eating habits in an attempt to get rid of belly bloat. No bread, no sweets, no dang red meats, my mantra.

I’m peculiar in that I can’t really begin a new year until my life is in order. Much like a Jet Blue pilot methodically going through his check list before take-off.

I am ready to embark on 2025, wishing for an uplifting year for us all.

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Just as I was finishing this writing, a soaring new poem from Amanda Gorman, who has become something of a phenomenon since her wonderful performance on Biden’s Inauguration Day, landed in my inbox.

The young poet's poems are meant to be read aloud, just as she reads them, with full voice and attention--it's then that her use of alliteration and rhyme, her insistent rhythm and poetic drumbeat comes alive. 

I found it very cool to read this aloud. So, find your inner Amanda Gorman and shout out her poem--and may we all enjoy a Happy and Healthy New Year! 

New Day's Lyric

May this be the day

We come together.

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren't ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.

‍This hope is our door, our portal.

Even if we never get back to normal,

Someday we can venture beyond it,

To leave the known and take the first steps.

So let us not return to what was normal,

But reach toward what is next.

‍What was cursed, we will cure.

What was plagued, we will prove pure.

Where we tend to argue,

we will try to agree,

Those fortunes we forswore,

now the future we foresee,

Where we weren't aware,

we're now awake;

Those moments we missed

Are now these moments we make,

The moments we meet,

And our hearts, once all together beaten,

Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,

But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,

In a new day's lyric,In our hearts, we hear it:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we've fought

Need not be forgotten nor for none.I

t defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.

‍

by Amanda Gorman