“The Gate of the Year” is a short piece of poetry that my late mother loved and quoted every Christmas as inspiration for the New Year. I have inherited the love of it too. Written by Minnie Louise Haskins, the original title given to it by the author was “God Knows”.
My mum was a really wonderful woman, and arrived in Australia from England with her parents as a young woman. I wish I’d known her better and been much closer to her. She never lost her love for the old country and possibly loved this poem so much because King George VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire.
The poem caught the public attention and the popular imagination when the king concluded his broadcast by saying:
“I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I would like to say to you:
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.”
May that Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all.”
As I’ve said, mum used it as guidance for the New Year and I reckon that it’s still great advice today.
I’ve included the photo of my dogs, Kahlee and Polly, merely coz they are my greatest supporters and never find fault with me or my utterances! They agree with me in wishing you and yours a very happy Christmas and the very best for the New Year.
Finally, here is East City Sound, a barbershop chorus of which my wife is a member, echoing those wishes in song.
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