Last night Corinne and I went to Jim & Dee Burns's house for the ecclesial New Year's gathering/party/devotional/shindig. The devotion, run by John and Heather Woodward, was based on a talk I gave in the first half of the year (that was a pleasant surprise, sometimes I wonder if anybody's still awake... I have the same problem here!).

A little exercise they devised for us all was picking someone's name out of a hat, and then writing on the piece of paper (with the name) something positive about that person. Very much a feel-good activity. Corinne and I were spooked at first because we both thought they were going to tell us to write down what we'd want for that person. We'd considered suggesting that, but hadn't, so it was weird that they even came close to it. (Incidentally, Bonny Pride and I usually pick each others' names for these little activities. Strange.)

Later, Ken Willis and I were talking in the Dining Room (near the chips and dips, of course), and he asked me about our financial situation. I told him that 2001 was horrible. It was like we (Corinne and I) were "walking hand-in-hand through the valley of the shadow of death" for most of the year.

Nobody warned us ahead of time that there was a monster in the valley called "financial woes". That beast tried very hard to pull our hands apart while it was also beating us each over the head with a club and making a lot of noise.

It almost beat us, honestly. Life was pretty dark for awhile, but we're still hand-in-hand (and heart-to-heart) and the monster seems to be shrinking. Finally. (Though he never really goes away, does he?)

For the first time in my experience, Ken didn't have much of anything to say. ;-) I don't think he expected such an honest and visual answer.

Thank God for family, friends, and above all a loving wife. That's my lesson from 2001.

I just watched The Dish.

In three words: I loved it!

Now, to anyone who reads this and knows Larry Fox (from R.R. Donnelley) : Go watch the movie! I'm sure that the wise-guy ("carrier pigeons!") that worked in the dish's tower was based on Larry. Let me know if you agree.