Ending and Beginning

How to begin a new year? Perhaps with old words.


Homer...
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.


TS Eliot: Four Quartets, Little Giding, stanza V...
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.

.....

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.


J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings...
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.


Again...
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by frost.