An After-Christmas Card

Now that the Christmas rush has come and gone, I have a moment to sit back and enjoy the unhurried pace of the day after Christmas. The gifts have been opened. The money spent. The anticipation of Christmas gives way to the anticipation of a new year, and maybe, just maybe, I'll make a few new years resolutions to remind me why every day is a gift, and to inspire me to give more than I take, as I make my way through each day, throughout the year, and throughout the rest of my life. Knowing how blessed I am, and how much I have already received, it seems doubtful that my giving can ever exceed my taking. Even so, I know I can give more.

Looking back at 2007, I have many reasons to celebrate. I have made many new friends; strengthened relationships with family members; moved into a new job at the Law School at George Mason University, and as an adjunct instructor in George Mason's Instructional Technology Program; I made some (albeit slow) progress toward finishing my doctorate; found a new hobby in swing dancing (which I thoroughly enjoy); spent time tutoring children in cognitive skills at a tutoring center; and, most recently, I dusted off my composing skills and composed a piano and men's chorus arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" which was performed at a church musical concert.

Not surprisingly, there were heartbreaks and disappointments too; frustrated efforts, mistakes and missed opportunities. Fortunately, I've come through intact. Who knows... maybe I even learned a thing or two as a result.

As I sit here watching the rain fall on the leafless trees outside (no white Christmas here), I'm thinking of the people I know, and how am I am known to them. It's funny to me how different people know different aspects of me. People at work think of me as a "tech guy" and photographer who works with databases and web sites -- and my photographs of the DC area and the people and places of the law school. Others, including my classroom students, think of me as an expert in disability access to education. Some people in church think of me as a musician, which is a label that I still haven't quite grown accustomed to having applied to me, considering that I didn't start learning to play the piano (at least with any sort of determination to really play it) until about the time I graduated from college. Only a handful of people know my background as a visual artist, though there was a time when that was how everyone knew me. My nieces and nephews know me as a running, jumping, throwing, laughing crawling, singing uncle to climb on, jump on, roll over, and play with. Some people know me quite well; others, much less. There are people who know my quirks and sense of humor, and others who may be surprised that I have either. Perhaps I keep too much of myself to myself sometimes!

As the new year rolls in, I want to focus not only on the aspects of me that fill a resume or a bulleted list of interests or accomplishments (though I certainly want to add to that list!), but also on the less tangible aspects of who I am inside, and how I can simply be a better friend by giving more of myself.

And so the year begins, with optimism and idealism, as it should. I'll fall short, of course, but I'm ok with that. And maybe, just maybe, I will have even more to celebrate at the end of 2008 than I did at the end of 2007.

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May your coming year be filled with wonder, surprises, laughter, and love -- or with whatever else is on your list of things you want to fill the year with (money? fortune? fame? unbridled power over the hearts and minds of men?). After all, the story of 2008 has yet to be written, and we are all co-authors, with pen in hand and an open scroll before us.