A Poem to Renew Our Spirit

As the mandates for masks have been lifted and we begin to make plans to be in the world again, we can reflect upon the last two years as being those that will forever be in our own history.  Reading this poem  by J.R.R. Tolkien helped to acknowledge the strength and resolve it has taken to stay the course:

“I sit beside the fire and thinkOf all that I have seenOf meadow flowers and butterfliesIn summers that have been

Of yellow leaves and gossamerIn autumns that there wereWith morning mist and silver sunAnd wind upon my hair

I sit beside the fire and thinkOf how the world will beWhen winter comes without a springThat I shall ever see

For still there are so many thingsThat I have never seenIn every wood in every springThere is a different green

I sit beside the fire and thinkOf people long agoAnd people that will see a worldThat I shall never know

But all the while I sit and thinkOf times there were beforeI listen for returning feetAnd voices at the door”― J.R.R. Tolkien

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