Book of Hours

Patti Smith, a singer, songwriter, poet, painter, and author became known as the “punk poet laureate” after her debut album, “Horses,” was released in 1975. She received the National Book Award in 2010 for "Just Kids," about her relationship and friendship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and published "Book of Days" (Penguin Random House), just before Christmas. The book includes 365 photographs, one for each day of a year.

Slipping down into a new year, I have been thinking about books of hours. These were Christian devotional books used as guides to prayer for the canonical hours. They were popular in the Middle Ages and often these exquisite medieval illuminated manuscripts are on view in places like the Morgan Library in New York.

I was thinking about these books because a few years ago I found a copy of Elizabeth Yates’ "A Book of Hours" in the Toadstool Bookstore in Peterborough. Yates was an American writer and had moved to New Hampshire with her husband in 1939. They bought and restored a farm in Peterborough. Yates’ book, "The Road Through Sandwich Notch," was influential in preserving that area of New Hampshire for inclusion in the White Mountain National Forest. She also served as the director of the New Hampshire Association for the blind. Her husband died in 1963. She lived until 2001 when she died at the age of 95 in a hospice in Concord.

Yates’ "Book of Hours," first published in 1976, includes meditations written for every hour of the day and includes a quotation at the beginning and end of each hour. The book is illustrated with leaf prints. While this is a Christian book, it is written from a humanistic perspective so any reader looking for inspiration or even contemplative thought throughout the day will find it in this beautiful little book.

I have been thinking about books of hours as I have been planning my activities, filling in a daily planner for the new year. I have been thinking about the role ritual and discipline can play in keeping our lives on track.

In my new planner, I have made certain I have scheduled time to read, time for listening to music and weekly visits to galleries and museums.

When the ball drops at midnight on New Year's Eve, we all have the feeling of expectation. We wake up the next morning with a sense of hope. Possibly with a list of resolutions. After enjoying the first day of the year we push the plate of cookies to the side and often take a pledge for “Dry January,” beginning the year on a sober, clearer, more refreshed, and healthier path. It only takes a few days before we begin to slip back into former routines. That’s when a book of hours is helpful.

However, you schedule your hours that expand into days and eventually into a year, I hope you find pockets of joy, love, and discovery through the hours that expand into the 365 days. At the end of 2023, perhaps you, too, can look back at photographs, sketches, a journal, or a schedule of rituals that will reflect on all that has happened with wonder.

Happy New Year.

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Elizabeth Howard is the host of the Short Fuse Podcast, found on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or through the Arts Fuse. Her career intersects journalism, marketing, and communications. "Ned O’Gorman: A Glance Back," a book she edited, was published in May 2016. She is the author of "A Day with Bonefish Joe," a children’s book, published by David R. Godine. You can send her a note at eh@elizabehthhoward.com.