Welcome

Thanks for the memories, 2005.

My memories are more precious as life's shadows deepen. Thank you for the shadows, too; I draw them closer as they lengthen across yet another year. I am remembering parents, grandparents and in-laws no longer here who gave me their conditional/unconditional love.

A bout with the flu after Christmas gave me the opportunity to look back on the years of rights and wrongs, pleasures, mistakes and sadness. Only 22 years ago my oldest grandson was born. The oldest people in our home and family that year are gone now.

Every generation thinks the one before it lived life at a slower tempo. When we speak of "War," we must say which war; only a smattering of veterans of "the Great War" are left, and the veterans of World War II will be gone soon, too. Viet Nam's generation is grey and reflective and the word "war" has been replaced with nano-speak.

It's foolish to believe that I only connect to the politics, contemporary art, music, literature, socially acceptables and styles of my own generation.

Today, a new connection is likely to be on the Internet which sometime brings people closer together and sometime keeps them farther apart.

We're all living longer, and it's easy to believe that "70 is the new 50." The hard part for me is growing up without growing old.

I'm thankful for my husband's early rise in the morning. I am thankful for several cups of his fresh-brewed coffee waiting for me, the devotion in his eyes as he demands I eat a hearty breakfast, for the quiet highway before the sun rises and for bolts of inspiration to post something for you to read.

2006, too, will be a year I'll remember.