The Gate of the Year 2015

The end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 was hard and even dark time for me on many levels, and as I looked into 2014 though I held on to what little hope I had left, I couldn’t say there was much excitement as I stood at the gate of the year. In my perplexity I was reminded the words of a poem written by Minnie Louise Haskins titled ‘God knows’ though popularly referred to as ‘The Gate of the Year’

This poem was given to King George VI by his daughter Princess Elizabeth and it caught the public attention and popular imagination when the king quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire. The poem has been a source of encouragement to many especially in the early days of the Second World War when it reached it’s first mass audience. I do hope it will encourage you as much as (perhaps even more than) it encouraged, the poem goes thus:

God Knows

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

I made the words : “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way” my creed in 2014 and indeed it was as the man at the Gate of the Year said – better than the the light and safer than a known way…

2014 for me was a year of significant highs; it was a year where I saw the hand of God transform lives, it was the year where I miraculously (and I do not use this word lightly) bought my first home, it was the year where I made significant strides in my career, it was the year where I passed my driving test ( this might not seem so great to some but it sure was for me…lol), it was the year where I started blogging and  found a new passion, one that might define the rest of my life. This is not to say there were no challenging times but through it all we came out on top.

I say of all this not to tell of my accomplishments or claim these to be the ultimate end but to tell anyone who, despite the many exciting talks about how great the new year is going to be, still feels a sense of hopelessness or has a bleak outlook as they stand at the gate of the year. I urge you to make this poem your creed: Put your hand into the hand of God in 2015 and it shall be to you better than the light and safer than a known way.

If you are reading this and don’t have a clue what it means to put your hand into the hand of God or how to do that but would like to know more then please do get in touch.

I wish you all a Happy New Year! 🙂

Dear Dream Reader, I hope you like short stories

It was a rainy day not unlike many others, the air was cool but not cold. It had been a long day at work and I was riding across the foot fridge over the railway line, having flouted the Cyclist Dismount sign, when I saw it. A painful reminder of the event that had happened a few days ago at that very spot, an event that has left us with more questions than answers.

Did she jump? Or was she pushed? Was it a joke that turned sour or did she leave home that morning thinking “this will be the day that I die” and if she did, the biggest question remains why?

This and many more are the questions that are running through the minds of family and friends as they dropped flowers, last notes and art craft at the spot where it happened. And as I ride pass I join others in asking for the truth, not because truth brings the dead back to life but because truth sets the living free.

Who am I and Why I’m Here

I am not sure when and how my love for writing began but I know I’ve kept a journal every year for over a decade and recorded within those pages are my thoughts. Wide and varied, they include everything from thoughts on what is wrong with the world, my propositions for ending hunger and poverty and what to look out for in a man before tying the knot.

I like to think that I have the words to change a nation but quite frankly I’m just tired of biting my tongue (a bit of EMELI SANDÉ there) and so that’s why I’m here. I’m here to make an attempt at giving my thoughts a voice beyond the pages of my journal. I’m here because, like most writers, I believe I have something worthwhile to say but time and you will be the judge of that. Which brings me nicely to the major reason why I’m here: I’m here to connect with those who will find my writing worth reading, I’m here because I know that thanks to the WWW my words can travel further than I physically can and touch people whose faces I will probably never see in ways I will most likely never know and the possibility of all these happening is why I write at all.

Now to the first question which I have tactfully kept to the end because I’m not quite sure how to answer it. I could give you a list of my credentials and accomplishments but I’m not quite sure that would sum up who I am. So for now I hope it would suffice if I said “I am just another blogger hoping you will stick around long enough to get to know me as I get to know ME” 🙂   (does that even make sense?)