Good Riddance, 2006!

Note: This started off with a point, not sure I ended up with one, but at the very least, here are some musings on the calendar change.


I'm not big on the "year end/beginning" days--my birthday, New Year's Eve/Day. Not sure at what point in my teens they stopped being celebrations, and more of an opportunity to think back on all the failures/"things I didn't accomplish" of the past 12 months. Hard to imagine I didn't get asked to more parties, eh?

Didn't do that last night--and I don't seem to be in the frame of mind to do it today. Which is strange, since it's an indisputable fact that 2006 is my Worst Year to Date. Not sure if it's maturity (could it be...finally?), lack of energy, my subconscious saving me from what would be an overwhelming exercise, a more of a day-by-day approach to life...something else entirely. The certainty that 2007 is going to make '06 look like a walk in the park? Whatever it was, as I looked around at my kids just playing randomly until they dropped off like flies (Frodo made it 'til 11:35, Samwise 'til 11:15...he was so looking forward to "the big disco ball"), I could say, "if I get more times like this, it'll be close enough to tolerable."

Yes, in the smoking remnants of my life, it is possible to see blessings, promises of hope in the ashes. Mentioned some of them before here. I'm not dwelling on them too much, either. I'm certainly not looking at either '06/'07 as a year to celebrate (tho' am thankful for them)--mostly out of the dread that many of them will be taken out in the next inferno, I bet. But I thank the Lord that they're there, and hope He gives growth to them...adds to them, even.

There's this repeated thought in the Preacher's book, maybe the point he's trying to drive home (I think it is).

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. Eccl. 2:24-26

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Eccl. 5:18

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. Eccl. 9:9-10

If I can just focus on that, should be okay, no matter what year it is.

...and then I go through my normal morning routine of reading some online comic strips (saves me from needing to subscribe to a newspapers), and FoxTrot is still showing Sunday's strip! Oh yeah, as of yesterday, it's a Sunday-only strip. Sigh...'07's off with a bang.