I am getting rid of things - some books go to the library downstairs on level 2 of our building. I won't say good bye to those books, for I can visit the library from time to time to visit my old friends who have served me well and now will just sit there and wait for someone to pull them out and open its pages.
Some things go to the Thrift Store - these may end up in someone's home, or sit in the store for someone to buy them. Some may end up in the incinerator to be turned into ashes to feed and nourish our plants and trees and bless the environment.
End of the year - time to throw away.
Yes, old grudges, old sorrows, old tears, old quarrels of yesteryears, old fears, old regrets! New Year affords a new beginning. Come to think of it - everyday gives us the opportunity for a new beginning.
New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.
New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.
If, on our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heaven in each we see;
Some softening gleam of love and prayer
Shall dawn on every cross and care.
We need not bid, for cloistered cell,
Our neighbor and our words farewell,
Nor strive to find ourselves too high
For sinful man beneath the sky.
The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
Seek we no more; content with these,
Let present rapture, comfort, ease—
As heaven shall bid them, come and go:
The secret this of rest below.
Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray. (John Keble)
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