A Blessing For The New Year

The Irish have a way with words and many of those words are tv appropriate as we greet the new year. This one is perhaps my favorite.

“May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past.”

This is my wish for you and yours. But here’s another wish. “May you get all your wishes but one so that you always have something to strive for.”

This is another key to happiness- to always have something to improve and work toward. It’s important and healthy to have room for improvement. Maybe that’s why we embrace resolutions – by striving to improve, we are striving toward happiness.

Happy New Year, my friends! Let’s show ‘em what we’re made of in 2023!

Happy Independence Day!

This vintage postcards speaks for itself. We are better together. Happy Independence Day!

Happy New Year!

Good morning and Happy New Year! Come on 2021. Let’s do this!!

I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

One of my favorite Christmas carols originates from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. English nerds like myself know the poem “Christmas Bells” but everyone else will know the song as “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.”

Longfellow penned this poem in the depths of another American crisis, during some of the darkest days of the Civil War.

It was a dark time for him personally as well – his wife of 18 years had succumbed to burns sustained in an accident. His son had also joined the Union Army without his consent and was subsequently injured.

I tell you this depressing story to tell you something else. History has proven time and again that this too shall pass. While we may struggle and hurt and suffer right now, brighter days lie ahead.

Read the poem below and listen to the carol if you have a favorite recording. Oddly enough, I’m partial to the Harry Belafonte rendition because he sings it with such reverence that it’s almost like a prayer set to music.

Wherever you are in this world and whatever your holiday looks like, Scout and I wish you a safe, happy and very MERRY Christmas!

Christmas Bells
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”