give voice

I watched a couple of Christmas specials and that got me to thinking. . .  there are so many songs for the various religiously derived holidays, but there are very few for the very secular New Year's. I can only think of one -- "Auld Lang Syne." Not exactly a roof-raiser.

And so I thought maybe "When You Wish Upon a Star" from the film Pinocchio might serve. Also not roof-raiser, but such a lovely sentiment. With or without carbonated wine.

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do

Fate is kind
She brings to those to love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

 

Interim

I have always loved this week between Christmas and New Year's. For me, it is as though time itself takes a holiday, as though the year ends with the culmination of the giddy, frenzied run-up to all the big end-of-year festivities
and then a switch is thrown
and the glare dims
and the relentless jingle-jangle sound shuts off. . .
and then there are days of time-out-of-time, a kind of open, quiet, meditative time that can't be measured as go-go usualness, as the hurly-burly of dailiness.

Instead, there is
stillness and quiet.
Short afternoons
that sidle into the long nights of deep winter.
Stillness and quiet.
A catching of the breath
and an exhalation,
a slow gathering
of anticipation,
and then the new year.

And then, only then,
the clock ticks over
and time starts again.
Already, the night is shorter.

Go well, my friends.