A toast to the year that happened.
Times gone by.
It was a good comrade.
It opened its doors so faithfully.
Quieted the raucous argument of elections
with rain.
The still compassionate rain
that calms the heart.
That softens the wilderness around us.
It was a good year.
I met beautiful people,
reaching out to others,
taking care of children,
putting food on the table,
and saw prayers on their faces
as they went about their chores,
took walks, washed windows.
For all the hurricanes and storms
that tore down trees and ruined gardens,
it was a wonderful time
to feel the wind on one’s face.
Watch the sky build villages of clouds,
see a movie
that told a story about human life,
with respect and gentleness.
It was a banner year of people
trying to help each other,
celebrating life in the pageant
of the Olympics,
the reaching out of nation to nation.
The creation of a collider
that rivals the pyramids,
that will see the beginning of the world
and hear the wail of God or universe
being born.
It was a year when we held out our arms
to the earth and said,
no more harm to the mother
that gives us our chance to find
the heaven we seek.
Now, for its tattered clothes
and empty dishes,
let us wash and clean them,
put them on hangers and shelves.
Sweep the floor, repair the debt
we owe to table and chairs,
and walls marked by our living,
and leave 2008, a year
that deserves our admiration and care.
It was a year to be born,
to grow up in,
to die, if our time had come,
without regret,
and remember it with happiness.