This is a poem from several years ago, written with my eyes closed during a concert. It was inspired by a piece of music that holds great personal meaning for me and by a poet whose words never fail to both challenge and uplift me.

While I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, more and more I enjoy using the time before and after New Year’s as a time of reflection.  This year, I’ve been pondering the word “threshold” and the many ways in which a new year is a kind of threshold, not only as the delineation between past and future, but also as a helpful tool in the present—a way of viewing all the daily “passages” that happen in our lives.