Opening new gates and doors in 2015

Visiting a door in the The Old Bazaar market in Cairo, Egypt.   There was a dim, dark alleyway that beckoned to me, and this door was the treasure that I found.  I was told it was about 800 years old. It was dangling open already, like a welcoming portal, to come feel its weathered surface and smell the remote past. The room beyond was empty, but still seemed to contain lingering remembrances of times long gone....

I have always been drawn to old gates and doors; they whisper softly of cherished homes with their long vanished children, parents, and merchants who daily used them. They are symbolic of being able to open new chapters--reviving hope, rebirth, promises.  Similarly, they are passageways to daring treks and adventures, but there is a condition--one must turn the right key to swing open a locked door.  There are innumerable enticing, beautiful doors and gates to open.  Sometimes it is challenging to know which one to access--to know which one is your destined entryway.  Emily Dickinson advised, "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I will open every door."  But I still ask, what doors and gates are we to open?  Which is the right one?

Since it is a new year, I have been reflecting on old and new gates in my life, and I came across a poem that was quoted by King George VI on Christmas Day in 1939 when he made his first speech as England was confronted with unfamiliar challenges on the brink of World War II.   The speech was dramatized in the movie The King's Speech. First of all, he gave words of encouragement, and then he concluded with lines from a poem by Minnie Louis Haskens (1875-1957). The poem is called "The Gate of the Year" or "God Knows."

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”  And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”  So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.  So heart be still: What need our little life, Our human life to know,  If God hath comprehension?  In all the dizzy strife  Of things both high and low, God hideth His intention..........................................So, heart, be still! 

King George finished his speech with this prayer:  

                                  “May that Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all.”

For me 2014 brought a tremendous shakeup of exchanging worlds--moving from St. Louis, MO where I had lived for 19 years to Doha, Qatar.  I would never have suspected or imagined such a radical swap last January; the move was sudden, but imperceptibly prepared for. I was ready, but did not know it.  I was fortunate to have a dim spark, a firefly of light in the darkness, to try to perceive if this was the right door to open. I decided to follow that firefly to an unknown path.

But this year if I met "the man who stood at the gate of the year," I think I would tell him that dimness is acceptable, even comforting, if I know that God's hand is in mine.  I have tried climbing a few peaks in the dark before (especially dealing with my son's autism), and know that God gives us the most radiant, illuminating panoramic views when we get to the top--if we trust his navigation for us. This year I believe, even more than I did last year, I want to trust in His change for me. He alone knows which exquisite, magnificent door I need to open this year.  

A gate where you have to bend to enter at the Sheik Faisal Museum in Doha, Qatar

Doors in Qatar at the Souq Waqif--a marketplace here in Doha.  They are highly ornamental here with glass and beautiful carvings.

My lovely door in my old home that I painted several times.  Sometimes I miss its cozy familiarity, but I guess I had to traverse some other passageways.

I have had much tutoring when I decided to open this door to my new home.

I bought this old, whimsical door (about four feet high) in the marketplace in Doha to hang on my wall.  I wanted to lug home the Egyptian door, but I thought this one would suffice.  Ha!  It is a daily reminder to not be too fearful of opening new doors, even if  dawn has not appeared on the horizon yet.