HAPPY NEW YEAR

God, with your help,
give me the courage
to begin this new year
with the resolve to solve
just one problem
in my life this year.

Give me the honesty
to sit down face to face with
that one issue,
that one memory,
that one sin,
that one mistake,
that one vice,
or that one habit,
that keeps on sitting there like a cancer,
or a tiger sitting on a tree outside my tent,
watching, scratching, clawing,
gnawing away at my strength,
because I know down deep
that this is what is keeping me
year after year
from having a Happy New Year.

© Andrew Costello, Markings