Happy New Year!

I had all sorts of plans for various end of year posts: Best Of lists and summaries and such. But the window for that has passed, so I will just note a few things I'm grateful for from 2010.

I'm grateful for my home. I'm grateful for not moving in 2010, and the prospect of not moving in 2011. I am grateful for my neighborhood and its neighborliness.

I am intensely grateful for continued good health, both for myself and those I love.

I am grateful for the challenges I have faced this past year, for the things I've learned and for the work I still have to do. I am grateful for the struggle: to find meaningful permanent employment, to express myself honestly, and to become more fully alive.

I am grateful for the living things I've been allowed to tend, both animal and vegetable. They have given me so much pleasure.

I am grateful for the many faith communities where I have been allowed to preach.

I am grateful for the many writers, online and in print, who have opened my mind to new thoughts and ideas. I am grateful for the lives of those remembered in obituaries this year who have made my world larger through their experiences.

I am grateful to have more than my basic needs met, and for the everyday luxuries I enjoy. I am grateful for Bakesale Betty's, turkey tacos, and sofrito. I'm grateful for Golden Yunnan tea. And I'm grateful for the Giants winning the World Series.

I'm getting into the weeds here, aren't I? I could go on and on. It was a good year, 2010. Not easy, but good. I think 2011 is going to be better. Well, we'll see.

Wishing you many blessings. There's more to come, God willing.

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in your mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at last. Amen.