I've posted here very little in 2008, but not because I've lost interest. Far from it.
In fact, this blog is my favorite writing venue. But the year got away from me, I guess, buried under an avalanche of political news and profound family milestones and events.
All is well, my friends, but so much is changing. Not that change is a negative, mind you... it just is, and it's time and energy consuming.
Andrea will be leaving home and going to college in 2009, most likely to UC Berkeley, University of Chicago or Tufts University, in Boston. Possibly Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia. (I'm privately rooting for the California school. Closer to home.)
My parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary a month ago. All three of our parents are now in their 80s, and dealing with bewildering, slowly deterioriating health, both physical and mental.
Our two adorable grandchildren are healthy, happy toddlers. Our adult children and their spouses are caught in the inevitable whirl of career, busyness and accumulation of too much stuff.
Ron continues to take five daily medications for diabetes, and I finally succumbed this month to obtaining an official diagnosis for the family arthritis in my hips and knees.
In our family, everyone knows they are loved. There are no family feuds, and relationships are in reasonably good repair. No one lost job or home. No one is facing life-threatening disease. Most know God, some intimately. All look forward to the future. We are blessed beyond words.
Life is good, but it's ever-changing. Sometimes, I wish time could stop for a while, so I could savor, at my own pace, a non-changing snapshot of the pleasures, the pains, the beautiful collage of life.
But that's not the nature of our existence. Instead, it keeps moving forward like a mighty river. Or like a proverbial avalanche that temporarily overtakes me.
This year, my resolutions have less to do with physical tasks or relationships, and more to do with my spiritual and personal growth. One of my resolutions for 2009 is more writing here.
My wish for you in 2009 is the same: deliberate focus on personal and spiritual growth, and the time and space to do it well. And finding something you love to do as much as I love writing.
Happy New Year, and God bless you!
(Art courtesy of NASA)
