New Year 's wishes

My Mum  loved this poem by M.L. Haskins. She  drew great comfort from it.She had many battles to fight and her faith never left her.
 It was written over a hundred years ago
It seems very appropriate for the first day of  the New Year.
A friend wrote it in Italian, in her Christmas card to me.
Here it is in English, I hope you find it inspirational.

The Gate of the Year

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 on the lone East.

I have received many lovely New Year's wishes happy and joyful.
The first one was in Italian :-

Ti auguro un 2014 ricco di matematica: addizionando il piacere,
sottraendo il dolore,moltiplicando la felicità e dividendo l'amore con le persone a te più care.

I wish you  a 2014 rich with mathematics; adding up pleasure, taking away pain,multiplying happiness and sharing (dividing) love with the people you care about.

The most popular wish is happiness, a happy new year. We went on a Peace march and everyone was wishing each other a  "serene New Year". That's not so common in English.It's not a word we use much at all, as a wish. But I was thinking about it, and how nice it sounds. I thought a lot about my Mum. She was always serene.
She couldn't do much about things.She couldn't bustle about or be active.But she could listen and show her love.
With her, I felt serene.
I wish you all a very happy New Year, and a serene one.