I must say that blogging has taken a back seat in terms of my attachment to the specifics of posting my random thoughts and life processes in cyberspace. My life has taken some sharp curves and I have been paying attention to the road mostly in terms of arriving safely at my destination (whatever that may be for the day I am in).

Sounds rather obtuse doesn't it?

I guess I simply reached a point at which I thought my observations were not going to move me along any further or faster than nature would have it and so had that second glass of wine and said the heck to all this introspection.

If one glass is good, two must be better, right!

Not always, but that is a story for another time.

This past year has given me two wonderful grand daughters, much less debt due to my wife's keeping me on track towards our goal of getting the old credit cards paid off and some relatively successful gardening.

My weekly bike rides with my biking buddy Glen were also an important part of keeping me sane and centered.

As this blog was begun in part to help me move beyond the pain of leaving a church that I had been a part of for over 20 years, this past year was not that stellar in terms of church attendance. I am still firmly convinced that I am a Christian and am more firmly convinced that what I learned over those twenty years was a lot of religious concepts that didn't go very far in establishing a personal relationship with Jesus.

What we learned, we taught our kids only to see that what we had given them was a much weaker foundation than what we had imagined it would be.

What I now see is that a lot of what I believed had to die in order for me to be able to really begin to live—not an easy process for your late fifties for sure.

Death is hard—yet what we are told is that if a grain of corn doesn't fall into the ground and die, it abides alone.

Yes we miss some of the fellowship that seems to flow from being a part of an organized church...but we do get some as we pursue those who are important to us. It always amazes me how often people say they desire fellowship but how little they actually do to facilitate it.

Kind of like the kettle calling the pot black—there is some of that in me as well.

Over all....it has been an interesting year and a year that has passed much to quickly.

I cherish the hours I get to baby sit one of my grand daughters and the walks in New York city with my wife of over 30 years. I am proud of my kids and the fact that they have made their own way in this mighty uncertain world.

And until I get back on the blogging horse, that will just have to do.