An Unfamiliar Room

"Entering the new year

is like going into a big and almost

unfamiliar room."

Faith Baldwin

Evening Star

"Having tried to travel light,

I hope I haven't brought the brittle,

broken disappointments with me--

they can cut like glass--

or the faded shopworn things

that should have been thrown out long since."

Faith Baldwin

"But some old things, the good ones,

without which the new-year room

would be very empty,

are the qualities,

emotions,

and attachments we have cherished;

these fit into the room

like a hand in a glove."

Faith Baldwin

"Love and loyalty--

a quality rarer than one thinks--

gratitude,

remembered without embarrassment,

and joy recalled,

without mourning."

Faith Baldwin

"No new room becomes one into which we

can fit with ease

and live with security

if it lacks these."

Faith Baldwin

"It is easier said than done,

this moving only the good memories

into the new room,

compelling oneself to discard the unhappy ones.

But I find as the years go past

and I move from one year's room into another,

that I manage to take less with me

of the things I do not need

and should never have kept."

Faith Baldwin

Shall we travel light

into the unfamiliar room of

2015?