2007 Is Toast ...

... and 2008 is all GRAVY, BABY ... at least for the moment! Don't you just love that unending stretch of pristine time that unfurls before you on New Year's Day? It's the only thing that makes clack-jawed parade announcers and endless football games bearable! You can even enjoy eating scads of junky food because you know that TOMORROW what is left of it is going into the garbage and you'll be on a strict daily regimen of fruit, vegetables, seeds, a few bites of protein, and WATER! Right? Riiiiiiight ... just for today it all seems possible, don't it y'all?

In 2008 you'll exercise and eat right every single day, never tempted to cheat. You'll read more and watch less TV. You'll write thank-you notes immediately after receipt of a gift. You'll call your mother once a week. You'll be nice and polite and keep your mouth shut at all the right times. You won't procrastinate. You won't bloviate. You won't dominate. You'll be serene and confident and slim and trim and punctual and organized and efficient and patient and dependable and praiseworthy (but modest) and accomplished and just generally on top of your game. As the hours and days and weeks and months of 2008 tick away, you won't ever forget the lessons of 2007.

Yes you will ... and so will I. You'll forget to floss, forget to stay in touch, forget your blessings, forget your resolutions. At some point we'll all forget to remember not to forget! It's what's known as the human condition. I hope in all the forgetting, we won't forget not to be so hard on ourselves. I mean, just yesterday I said this to someone very dear to me: "Why on earth are you so hard on yourself?" Although I think we need to introspect and self-correct at regular intervals, I think we also need to remember to forgive ourselves daily. We all make mistakes. God will forgive us the moment we ask Him to; why is it so difficult to cut some slack to the person looking back at you in the mirror?

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but if I had decided to make one this year, it would have gone like this: In 2008 I resolve to be more forgiving of everyone in my life -- from total strangers to my dearest loved ones -- never forgetting to forgive myself first.

I forgive myself for not telling you yet about Melanie. I promise, I will do that. Soon. Here's a picture of her to tide you over. She's the small one. It was her third birthday ... December 21, 2007.