A shy welcome to 2008

I've said elsewhere that I don't want to wish my life away in dribs and drabs, which is exponentially true for entire years. That being said, when I Iook back on 2007, I can think of several reasons to rejoice at parting company with it. The final loss of Dearest's Grandma (who had been mostly taken from us by distance and a couple of strokes some years previous), and the implosion of my teenage nephew's life. Another few rounds of throwing money at his relatives who have no sense for using it. Despite insulating the hive and generous servings of sugar-syrup, the southernmost family of bees succumbed to cold. A friend started her battle with cancer.

And those are just the woes of me and mine, to say nothing of points elsewhere.

In all fairness, 2007 saw Dearest's oldest brother marrying a wonderfully kind, well-grounded lady. And we made it off the continent at long last, another red-letter set of days. And I made the conscious decision to let a number of extracurricular obligations expire with the end of the year, so I step into 2008 with a sense of being lighter. (Or of lighter being--take your pick.) It is what we do when we don't have to do it that makes us what we are: I firmly believe that. In this case, though, it's not a question of doing less, but rather focusing the same measures of time and effort on things that aren't so taken for granted.

Hopefully the coming year will handle us all a little more gently, in any case.