Farewell 2009!

I started this blog on a lark over three years ago. Originally I thought I would just have an outlet to vent my frustration over the state of politics in the US of George W. Bush. Some of my posts have been off the cuff and poorly conceived, some well-composed and thoughtful. After spending considerably more energy on music blogging than here, a few months ago I decided to focus a bit more on this blog and on writing. I've been posting new essays, creative writing, and a bunch of essays from my past. I've enjoyed the chance for creative expression, and the opportunity to reexamine my own beliefs about politics, spirituality, and music, which seem to drive my internet consumption as well as expression. I'm grateful to those of you who read this blog: people I know and mysterious internet drive-by-ers all. But I'm mostly just grateful for a having a forum to organize my own thoughts and challenge myself to refine and express my own views. In this respect, 2009 was productive and promising.

In the face of terrible economic woes in the world and in my own life, too many wars and conflicts, a rising tide of right-wing idiocy, global warming, political corruption, and future uncertainty, it's nice to have a place to gather my thoughts.

I wish the same for you and yours that I wish for me and mine: a new year full of life, love, happiness, health, abundance, joy, peace and justice.

(The illustration here is the six of swords from the iconic Rider-Waite Tarot deck. A card I have always loved, it tells of a journey from rough waters to calm, from sorrows present but overcome, a journey full of danger but also hope.)