Hi, RW! Sorry I missed you at Christmas, but may I be one of the first to wish you the Happiest of New Years!
2006, already. Yeah, I know. I am always optimistic at this time of year, in recent years the result of so wanting to be rid of the old, crummy year just winding up. 2005 was finally different, from beginning to end. Today, I am optimistic that 2006 will outdo 2005, hands down.
How can I be so sure? Well, of all my plans for 2006, the most joyous is our holiday news that my daughter and son-in-law will be delivering our first grandbaby in the spring! I am SO ready to try out this new gig! We are all simply beside ourselves with anticipation and excitement...there is a renewed sense of family in our tiny corner of the world...and yet another new phase of life upon us. I have already begun the training: I have the floorplan of our local Babies-R-Us downpat (and let me tell you, I've gotten an education just browsing those aisles! Holy moley! Makes you wonder how WE did it without all the gadgets they have today, huh?) (See? I'm already learning how to speak "grandparent"!) Anyhow, we're getting our heads around the whole grandparent thing pretty well...there couldn't have been any news more blessed or more welcome than this!
<< So many changes--internal and external. Yet I feel like I'm returning.>>
Yes. And you get to direct the changes now. That's the fun part. And may you continue to feel like you're "returning". But I'd just like you to know that, to me, the core of who you are, RW, never "left". In the years that we've been pounding our keyboards back and forth (sporadic though I may have been), you have always been the same caring, insightful, wonderfully witty and to-the-point woman that you are today. Our cores don't change as a result of these ordeals that are forced upon us, IMHO. Indeed, when the light of the new day, the new life, shines in as we come through the other side, I think we're inclined to make the best parts of our core even better, more prominent. It's what I've tried to do with myself, and I've never been more at peace with who and what I am. I know it feels like we're "lost" for a while, but we're not, really. You feel like you're returning now, and I assure you that you will return better than ever, because of the person you have always been at the core. Guess you'll just have to trust me on that....
I wish all the best to you and all those dear to you in the coming new year, RW.
With wishes for a Happy and Peaceful and Prosperous New Year to all,
