Ring out Wild Bells!

     New England weather is exactly as crazy as people profess it to be.  We went from a huge snow storm to a gloriously warm New Years day.  It was 55 degrees!  So, of course, we went to the beach.  It was a perfect way to start off the New Year.  I’m always surprised at how much fresh air and beautiful things rejuvenates me.  Especially in the middle of winter.  My body is starving for these things (Malden is a far cry from beautiful in the Winter).  It’s soothing to my soul to see the ocean, to smell the air, to hear it’s rocking song.  As soon as we drove onto Plum Island I felt more whole than I have in a long time.  I decided right then and there that one of my (way too many) New Years resolutions is going to be to seek out something beautiful once a week.  To really be in nature.  To let it fill me up.  I think my kids are intoxicated by it as well.  The freedom, the feeling of really being alive.  They drew in the sand and played tag.  We couldn’t stay long but even that short little time made us all much happier.  The light was so thin and crisp, I was happy to have a very willing model to let me capture some of it.     People were even walking barefoot.  That’s pretty remarkable for January in New England.   We met up with the Kruckenbergs for about 3 minutes before we had to rush off to Ian Timothy’s baptism (which was also a great way to spend New Years Day)

Hooray for a New Year.  I always feel quite overwhelmed at the beginning of the year, so laden with things I want to do and be and change.  I’m thinking of copying Shawni this year and focus on just one thing per month….but that’s hard for me, I feel like all of the things that I want to change need to happen NOW.  I want to be that person in my head NOW, not after 12 months. That’s really realistic and attainable, right?  Maybe the first thing I should focus on is patience? 

More about that later (maybe, if I can follow through on my resolve to more regularly post).  For now, here’s one of my favorite poems for the New Year.

 

Ring Out Wild Bells

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 thy 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.