hobbits, once thought rare,
amazingly resilient
and self-reliant.

This mythology
the understanding and tales
creeps into our lives.

The smallest star seen,
in the night most desolate,
returns hope to us.

J.R.R. Tolkien
favorite story teller
of worlds most magic.

…the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.

~~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book II, The Land of Shadow.

the moments between
smallest quiet reflections
the dark and the light

each day’s busyness
binds up what we know of life
to what we cannot.

behind the veil, seen,
we know shadows and some light
but only dimly.

Last night’s haiku referenced a link to Neil Gaiman’s words for the start of a new year. One really great thing about following a bunch of writers on the twitterverse and facebook is that, well, they’ve got a great way with words, go figure.

If I ever did become Queen of the World, I’d want someone like Neil Gaiman writing speeches for me because he just pulls the truth out of things and puts them right there in front of you, plainly and beautifully, so you want to pick them up and carry them with you.

So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave – let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we’re faking them.

I looked down at my little ring of fearlessness

and I thought – it’s not really about being fearless which often implies “I’m not afraid of this that or the other thing!” but it’s being brave, having courage enough to act despite our fears that keeps us going, that pushes us to try, to do things we might not think we can.

Maybe it’s not being brave or being fearless exactly. I’m thinking bold might be even better as in “to boldly go where…”

None of these definitions really matter in the end. What matters is to do, even if you’re just, as James Victore or Neil Gaiman urge us, faking it until you are that artist, that person, doing that thing because that’s who you are. In doing, we become.

year’s end comes at last
looking back, facing forward
we pledge to live on.

the end of the year
that space between what we are
and what we dream of.

I make new pledges
having forgotten the past
and promises not kept.

This year to be brave
and joyous at the choosing
to be brave this year.