So here's the short of it, 
We stand at the Gate of the Year...

And here's the long.  

King George VI used this quote in his address to the British Empire at Christmas time in 1939.  It sure has been a guiding light for me over the past few years.  I don't know much about Poet Minnie Louise Haskins, but whatever else about her -- she got it just right on this one.


     And 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.