A Brief Look Back

It’s the day of New Year’s Eve, and I’m answering a vague compulsion I have to consider the last 365 days. I had some laughs, and some good times, and overall I’m lucky, but you know, I’m glad I’m putting a lot of it behind me.

I guess the best thing for me this year it is that I’ve learned to be a little more balanced so that I’m not careening from deadline to deadline. I have more time to connect with my wife and kids. I got some nagging health problems squared away so that I’m sleeping pretty well and have fairly normal energy levels again.

My family and I got to visit New York, and Philadelphia, and my wife and daughter and I spent some time in the Florida theme parks. My daughter got a lead role in a play at her school and my son got a lead role in a play at his, and they’re both doing pretty well in school. More importantly, they’re turning into great human beings who will, all-too-soon now, be moving out of the house. And I think that’s what gets me the most. How fast it’s all shooting by. How much I need to savor what is here before me. I’ve been working so hard on trying to turn this crazy writing thing into a career that I’ve sometimes lost track of the fact the kids are getting older every day.

I’m going to log off. A little house cleaning lies before me, then a trip to the post office, then some writing time. Come evening the family and I will probably watch the ball drop on the TV screen, and then hopefully we’ll just laze around relaxing together on the first day of the new year.

Here’s hoping you and yours get a new year off to a good start.