Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year to My Friends (and Family)


A Friend or Two

There's all of pleasure and all of peace
In a friend or two;
and all your troubles may find release
Within a friend or two;
It's in the grip of the sleeping hand
On native soil or in alien land,
But the world is made---do you understand---
Of a friend or two.

A song to sing, and a crust to share
With a friend or two;
A smile to give and a grief to bear
With a friend or two;
A road to walk and a goal to win,
An inglenook to find comfort in,
The gladdest hours that we know begin
With a friend or two.

A little laughter; perhaps some tears
With a friend or two;
The days, the weeks, and the months and years
With a friend or two;
A vale to cross and a hill to climb,
A mock at age and a jeer at time---
The prose of life takes the lilt of rhyme
With a friend or two.

The brother-soul and the brother-heart
Of a friend or two
Make us drift on from the crowd apart,
With a friend or two;
For come days happy or come days sad
We count no hours but the ones made glad
By the hale good times we have ever had
With a friend or two.

Then brim the goblet and quaff the toast
To a friend or two,
For glad the man who can always boast
Of a friend or two;
but fairest sight is a friendly face,
The blithest tread is friendly pace,
and heaven will be a better place
For a friend or two.

by Wilbur D. Nesbit

Happy 2010 to my friends. We're set to make new memories! :-)

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - join and/or see other posts by visiting Carolyn at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.

14 comments:

F Cameron said...

Happy 2010 to you, too! (It sounds so Sci-Fi, doesn't it?)

Cheers,
Cameron

Rosemary said...

Shady, Happy New Year to you and your family.

Nutty Gnome said...

Happy New Year Shady - I loved that poem and it's so apt for today as I sit here and Himself and Pete (our oldest friend - in terms of years we've known him!)are doing something technical in the kitchen!

We had Christmas with family and New Year with old friends. Now we're all waiting for the Gnomelets to come home so that we can nestle in for the snowy evening ahead! :)

I left you a reply about Danish traditions over on my blog, but it's gone squiffy right now and won't let me open my comments box to copy it onto here for you. Ho hum!

Sweet Home and Garden Carolina said...

Wonderful poem for the first garden bloggers muse day of 2010! Thanks, Shady, and all the best to you this year.

Phoenix C. said...

Happy New Year, Shady!

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Cameron, 2010 as sci-fi... yea. We made it past George Orwell's 1984 Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, nd naow we're ready for Arther C. Clark's 2010 (which I haven't read). Who knows what will happen this year! ;-)

Thanks Rosemary. My best to you and your family, too. We'll be visiting each other, won't we? :-)

Hi Liz, I'm so glad you're having good visits with family and friends. Thank you for all the information about the Danish traditions... I visited your site and appreciate it! It has inspired me to "dig deeper" and look forward to starting something new next year.

Hi Carolyn, Best wishes to you as well. I really enjoy hearing about your little granddaughter.

Best Wishes throughout 2010, Phoenix C.

joey said...

Poem was the best, dear Shady. Just spent this evening and last sharing dinner with dear friends. Happy New Year, dear friend :)

MrBrownThumb said...

Happy New Year too you too!

Chloe m said...

hi Shady,
Thanks for sharing that nice poem. So touching! I wish you the happiest New year as well!

I just got used to writing 2009 on my checks. Oi.

Rosey

Anonymous said...

Hi Shady, thanks for the most wonderful sentiments expressed in this apt poem to begin a new year. I just wrote the first *10* on a check today while paying bills. It seemed strange yet exciting. That will quickly wear off. :-)
Frances

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

HNY, Shady! Thanks for stopping over and clearing up the mystery of my little red bird. (I know nothing about birds, thought he was a wren.)

Anyhoo! I look forward to a fun 2010 following your blog!

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Joey! You are so sweet. Perhaps on one of our "forays" into Michigan, we could arrange to meet... at a nursery somewhere??? I'd really love to visit Hallson Gardens, for example.

Thanks for your visit, Mr. BTH

Hi, Rosey. I understand completely. I'm going to have to repeat "20-10" to myself for awhile. :-)

Frances, My sister-in-law received the "coolest" gift for Christmas. It's a plastic "face mold" (suggested use for the front of a flower pot). However, YOU and I would use the face in a variety of ways! I hope she'll let me use it if I get to northern Iowa this coming Spring! (Otherwise, I may have to search for my own!)

Kate, I'm glad I could be of some help... but when it comes to house finches and purple finches, I still sometimes get confused! :-)

Ricky Luz said...

Happy new year for you too!

Shady Gardener said...

I must have missed your comment earlier, Rick. Thanks!