the Lord of the Rings has been on my mind and in my hands.

Well, dear ones, I'm gone, or back as the case may be. I either miss you or am excited to be with you. I will either see you soon, or not for a few months. But, in either case, in either case, I find that I am glad that you exist, whoever you are. Not because I can see you, or avoid seeing you for some time, but because you mean something to me and in some way, you have helped me get here, looking on the coming year in the way that I do.

I find that there are things to look forward to coming in this year and that delights me. I find that there are things to regret in the past year and that saddens me. But I find also that in all of those things, past and to come, there are constants and comforts. Many of them are the people that I love and that love me. But one, the central one, the one that really matters? Why, he's been there from the start of all things, not just of me. And maybe that is what makes him glorious. I am glad that he steps with me into the mystery before me, for otherwise I step alone. There is a journey before me and yes, there are those who have walked with me and those whom I have left behind and those who continue to walk with me and there are those who will walk with me that I do not yet know. But there is only one who has walked with me from the start of this journey and walks with me now and will walk with me till the end. Maybe this is a cliche way to speak of him, but that does not make him any less real to me. God is my guide and he does walk with me on my journey. And even though it frightens me sometimes that he walks so close beside me, he doesn't fail to indicate every hole into which I may fall or every root over which I may trip, whether or not I concede to listen to him and take subsequent caution while walking.