You are the New Day.

[kiya]

You are the new day.

There is no difference between sea and sky in the twilight: just a seamless feeling of slate-coloured fog, the end of the world lurking just over the edge of the sea wall.

Then are the sounds: the gulls screaming, the soft slurs of the waves sliding over the beach. The edge of the water is visible, then, a pulse against the slate of the sand. Then there is land, sudden, sharp, the arc of the Salem coast away to the left, an island lurking out in the lack of horizon. There are the lights of a ship, away, far in the distance, marking where the separation between earth and sky would lie if there were separation between earth and sky.

There is rose and peach in the sky, over the clouds that lie on the horizon. And then there is a difference: there is a seam, the lower horizon a purpler slate than the upper.

Like a breath I knew would come I reach for the new day

I walk out onto the headland, down the concrete steps from the top of the seawall onto the red and black stone. I rummage through my paraphernalia: I have forgotten to bring the incense, and the candle will not stay lit. So I set my back against the wall, sit on the stone, and watch the obscured horizon.

The gulls scream, sounding like car alarms or ambulance sirens to my fuzzy brain. Five ducks splash down in among the rocks and paddle about, nibbling at seaweed as they progress towards the shore.

The morning, slowly, clears my mind; I can only do mornings like this, getting up with intent to see the dawn. And I sing: first I sing "You are the New Day", and then I sing "Morning has Broken", the two verses of it I know.

I stay and watch the clouds brighten and grow colour, more distinctions between cloud and distant stone on the horizon.

A motorboat breaks the illusion of solitude, alone with the birds.

I go home.

Hope is my philosophy
Just needs days in which to be
Love of life means hope for me
borne on a new day.

Happy New Year.

You are the new day.

Comments

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you!

[kiya]

Thank you. :)

(Wow, you're quick. ;) )

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

The refresh button is my friend. :)

May this be your best year so far, and the least of those to come.

[jennaria.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you too.

(Am hereby of the opinion that you are unfairly advantaged in this New Year business. Watching the sun come up strikes me as a wonderful way to greet the New Year, but in January?)

[kiya]

I think if you wanted you could make a case that your liturgical new year came on Easter, neh?

[jennaria.livejournal.com]

I'd have to go back and double-check. :thoughtful:

(Interesting thing is, back when I was young and sunrise services actually happened at sunrise, rather than at 7 or :wince: 9 AM, I did watch in the sun on Easter...)

[kiya]

The other immediate thought I had was Christmastide, but that's not really a significant improvement over January.

[brooksmoses]

As far as I'm aware, the Methodist liturgical cycle begins at the beginning of Advent -- at least, that's how the hymns in the "The Christian Year" section of the hymnal are ordered. I would think this is a borrowed from general Christian practice, rather than specific to Methodism.... But this is still not a particularly significant improvement over January, although arguably it is somewhat of one.

(Incidentally, do you have a Methodist hymnal? We seem to have two of the 1960s version (the one prior to the most recent revision), so you could have one if you wanted.)

[kiya]

I would note that I said "could make a case", not "is".

And yeah, I have a hymnal.

[briar24.livejournal.com]

thank you.

[briar24.livejournal.com]

and Happy New Year to you.

[morningwind.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year to you! :) (And as a random note, I love that song by the King's Singers)