I like to think that, no matter how old I may get, each year lived has taught me a new lesson.  More and more, though, it seems like the lessons learned are really lessons relearned — lessons learned once, then forgotten, then learned again.  And no doubt, the process will continue.  2010 was no exception.  By anyone’s standards, this past year was a fantastic year for me.  A  new life stage, that of the empty-nester, brought a new, even more intense commitment to my work.  A happy coincidence brought a new publisher and the publication of a new novel to go with that renewed commitment.  Some dear friends have called me the busiest writer in town. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is, well, then that’s fine with me.  Being creative in all sorts of ways keeps me young. Long may that last! But with the work comes that lurking old need to control, to force the world to meet me on my own timetable.  To push.  And that’s the old lesson I have had to relearn this past year.  As someone wiser than me put it: you can’t push the river.  My wish for us all, then, in this coming year is to work hard, play hard, love what we are doing and who we are doing it with — but while remembering that lesson which is so necessary to learn and yet so often forgotten.
Happy New Year to all my friends out there. With love, and the gift of a great aide de memoire from Mr Dylan and ChicagobikeTV, whoever he is, who took Dylan’s lyrics and made them his own: