At this time of year, a poem written over 120 years
ago appears apt to me. Written by Septimus Winner (a prodigious composer and poet), on or before 1893, links the cycle of seasons with the cycle of life.
The poem is reflective and hopeful… a good combination to enter a new year.
“Which is life’s most happy season?”Asked an aged man one day
Of a group of merry schoolboys,Gathered ’round his house at play.
Some then, laughing, told him “summer,”
Some the spring did most enjoy,
But not a welcome word for winterHad each bright, light-hearted boy.Then the old man answer’d, smiling,”There is joy our whole life through,
But the eyes of boys see never,As the eyes of old men do.”
“Three score years ago the spring timeWas a happy time to me,After that I loved the summer,With the blossom, bird and bee;Youth and manhood thus passed o’er me,Happy seasons, though they fled,Now I love the golden autumn,With its leaves so brown and dead;And when comes at last the winterIt shall find me, happy too,For when every branch is leafless
I shall see the stars shine through.”
MMM -- Mission Musings 