Seeker

  Happy 8th day of Christmas. (No, Christmas isn't over yet.) And Happy New Year. 2021 is behind us and 2022 has begun. What will this year bring? Some things seem reasonably predictable, but I am not going to list what I think those might be. More things about 2022 are really unknown. Life has a habit of surprising us with the unexpected, both good and bad. The unpredictable and the unknown can make us anxious. I feel both hopeful and anxious about what this year will bring for me and the people I love and indeed the world in general. In the UK it's nearing the end of this first day of January and it is dark. A friend posted a quote on Facebook today from King George VI's 1939 Christmas broadcast. It was part of the preamble written by Minnie Louise Haskins to her 1908 poem called 'God knows'. That preamble is sometimes known as 'The Gate of the Year' and is usually only quoted in part. It has been an encouragement and inspiration to me since I first heard...

I f it is really 2015 then I must be getting old. Today does start 2015 so I have to admit I am getting older - but not 'old' yet. You are as old as you feel aren't you? 'Old' is always much older than me - in my own mind anyway, although I think my grandchildren see my age differently. I'm not old enough to have heard King George VI's 1939 Christmas broadcast in which he quoted part of Minnie Louise Haskins' 1908 poem 'God knows', more popularly known now as 'The Gate of the Year'. I'm old enough to be inspired by it and often think of it on New Year's Day and other times of new beginning when facing an unknown future. That is probably because it meant so much to many people of my parents' generation. It was read at the end of every school year by the head teacher of my school. It was significant for my father and was read at his funeral. So, remembering that my parents married on 1 January and faced an unknown future, a...