Hi Friends –
THIS IS THE YEAR is a poem by Russell Kemp, a Unity minister ordained in 1949. Weekly Unity crafted nine meditations based on the poem in 1966, Catherine Ponder opens her 1975 article with the poem, Eric Butterworth provided an extended four paragraph commentary about it in 1977 and in 1984 Unity published it as a hymn in Wings of Song. It’s fair to say This Is the Year is a Unity classic. So I’m passing it on to you this morning. I hope it brightens your day.
Sunday, May 15, 2022
THIS IS THE YEAR!
Russell Kemp
Wonderful, wonderful, fortunate you,
This is the year that your dreams come true!
This is the year that your ships come in;
This is the year you find Christ within.
This is the year you are glad to live;
This is the year you have much to give.
This is the year when you know the Truth;
This is the year when you find new youth.
This is the year that brings happiness;
This is the year you will live to bless.
Wonderful, wonderful, fortunate you,
This is the year that your dreams come true!
In May 1966, Weekly Unity publishes nine meditations based on This Is the Year
On May 2, 1966, Weekly Unity advertised Birthday resources based on Russell Kemp’s This Is The Year. Here is what they said:
YOUR BIRTHDAY PROMISE contains nine meditations based on Russell A. Kemp’s popular poem “This Is the Year!”
In January 1975, Catherine Ponder opens her Unity magazine article quoting This Is the Year
FOR MANY YEARS now at this season, when a fresh new year begins, I have found inspiration in Russell A. Kemp’s poem, “This Is the Year!” It begins:
“Wonderful, wonderful, fortunate you,
This is the year that your dreams come true!
This is the year that your ships come in.”
This can be the year your dreams come true. Whether they do or not depends upon whether you believe they can, and then do something constructive to help make them come true. Many dreams never come true because people dismiss their desires as impossible of fulfillment.
If you and I were mere human beings, it would be foolish to believe that our dreams can come true. But we are spiritual beings, endowed with the very power of God to help us achieve our great and good desires. God made man in “his own image,” and then gave man dominion over the earth and everything on the earth. In fact, God even gave spiritual man the power to “subdue” the earth.
We are not puppets on the strings of time and fate. We have been endowed with the power of the universe with which to achieve our good. God expects us to use this spiritual dominion and take command of our world. How else can we grow progress, and achieve? How else can w contribute to the good of mankind?
Like the late Mike Todd once said, "Life is like the movies. We produce our own show.” More than we may realize, we have produced our “own show” in the past. If ve sent out our ships of thought laden with the expectation of limitation, we produced that kind of “show”in our lives. Now let us send out great expectations of unlimited good, knowing that we can produce that kind of "show" as well. Begin by telling yourself: “This is the year! This is the year my dreams come true! This is the year my ships come in."
In April 1977, Eric Butterworth offers an extended commentary on This Is the Year1
There is a poem by Russell Kemp which has some lines that are particularly relevant to this thought of birthdays. One line is, “This is the year that your dreams come true.” Put emphasis on the good that the new year ahead, beyond a birthday, is going to mean for you: a time of progress and growth. No longer postpone your good until some other time, some other year, some other place. Give thanks that now is the time. No longer dream about the good that you want to see manifest in your life. Give thanks with faith and conviction that right now, this very moment, your good is at hand. Your birthday celebrates the opening of the year that your dreams come true.
No longer dream of yourself as being healthy and happy in the future, or sadly look back at times when you were healthy and happy in the past. Affirm that you are now filled with the health and happiness of God. No longer dream of yourself as being prosperous and successful at some future time, or look back regretfully at some past time. Affirm the now you are a child of God, heir to the Divine good, filled with God’s power and wisdom. There is no better time for you to begin to be prosperousand successful than right now. Now, on your birthday, is the time for your dreams to begin coming true. Now is the time to affirm their fulfillment.
There is another line to that poem that I like: “This is the year that your ships come in.” What are your ships that you have set out? They are your thoughts, your prayers, your aspirations. Every good thought returns to bless you a hundredfold, not at some future time, but now, beginning with your birthday. Every sincere prayer you utter opens the way for good to rush into you, not at some future time, but now. Do not search distant skies or wait on some distant shore for your good to come to you. Right where you are, expect your ships of faith and prayer to bring your good to you.
And there is another line: “This is the year you are glad to live.” Now you may not actually think of yourself as not being glad to live. And yet every time you say that you are tired, that you are unhappy, that you are disappointed, or that you don’t have the things that you need or want, you are denying that you are glad to live. So right now, on your birthday, let go of the negative habits of thought and feeling that have troubled or depressed you. Watch your attitudes. Make sure that with every thought, every word, every act, you affirm your faith in God, your faith in good, and your love for life.
- Eric Butterworth Speaks, 04/26/1977. Essay 26, On Your Birthday
In 1984, Wings of Song publishes This Is the Year as a hymn
