Shall we make a joyful noise unto the Lord? Or will we all sit down by the waters and scream?

It’s no use Grandma, my then two-year old granddaughter once said when she locked herself in the bedroom and we could not get the door open because she did not know how to manipulate the complex lock. After thirty minutes of trying to walk her through the process, I lay down flat on the floor to peer under the door. There she was, also lying flat peering back at me;

“it’s no use Grandma, it’s no use”. Her little brown eyes welled up with tears.

She then rolled over on her back and with a dramatic sweep of one hand to her brow, she rocked her head from side to side, “it’s no use Grandma, I have to stay in here”.

I was close to tears.  The drama was too much and my frustration with the door had mounted to epic proportions. I could not rescue the love of my life who wasn’t even two feet away from me.  The year 2016 grabbed me by the throat before I could utter a squawk. Not unlike the rest of America, I was dragged through January all the way to December gulping for air and wondering how the next two days will play out.

It’s December 29^th and nature has shrouded the city where I live in a blanket of fog and gloom, and I quite expect to see witches on brooms. Why not? The hobgoblins had already descended and claimed so many human souls. The river Styx is jammed packed with silent souls wanting to pass by December 31st, their coins clutched in recently warmed palms.

My writing this note to you is not to further deepen your brooding, but to say that though I am nervous and hurting from the debacles of 2016, I still have a seed of hope deep in my soul and I am encouraging you to look for your ‘hope seed’ as well. We all have one. Wake it up and hold it fast, kiss your fist and offer a prayer. 

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering” (Nietzsche) “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star” (Nietzsche). 

I mean to say that despite the frenzy that 2016 is dishing out, we must keep our ‘hope seed’ alive to create a new star for the future.  Though some would argue, ‘what future?’ There is always expectation as long as we remain humans.  How depressing to imagine that you are the last of the human race.  How horrible to think that there won’t be anyone left to see a field of Roses, Daisies, Daffodils, Mums, Baby’s breath, Wild Orchids, Anthuriums, birds bunching up on the telephone wire; to smell the hot earth after a quick rain. How can we leave all that without appreciation? Must we abandon God and die from earthly disappointments?

I propose that we look the present gloom in the eye and smile trustingly, tread lightly lest you waken drowsing goblins. Be gentle, be hopeful, pray, because,

“Though much is taken, much abides and though we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” (Tennyson).

I leave you with those words from one who knew how glorious it was to continue on, to plant new seeds, to not despair, to dream, to fight, to belong.

I wish each and every one of my friends and acquaintances a beautiful end to 2016, and a 

gloriously hopeful 2017.  Make a joyful noise despite the chaos.

Happy New Year.

 

Rhys.

lmh: cc/.292016