Well, I successfully fulfilled my new year's resolutions from last year -- and that's always a good way to make a year feel successful. The first resolution was to submit something for every issue of a local Pagan magazine, for the year (8 issues): even if pieces get rejected, to send something in for the next one. I sent my 8th and final one for the year 2 hours before the moment of the solstice, and 2 days before the publishing deadline. And four of those eight pieces were excepted for publication, and maybe a fifth, too... but I won't know that until the Imbolg issue is out.

The second resolution I made was to write something in memoriam of my uncle Peter, who was killed before I was born, but whose life greatly influenced mine (that was one of the pieces that wasn't printed, but I posted it to Mudcat, here, and so it was shared, and he will be remembered, at least as someone who mattered, by more people than me.

But the Best-est thing that I can think of this year had to have come at Christmas, when I opened a package from an on-line friend I've known casually for a few years, to find it chock full of things that suit my personality so perfectly, it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Not so much the stuff itself, but the thought and the effort that went into it -- the tangible proof that someone thousands of miles away took the time to see and understand me, as a person, behind the tens of thousands of annonymous words I've posted to the Internet.

Whether 2002 was joyful or diffecult for you, I send wishes of hope and joy to all for the year to come. May your heart be full of the laughter of ten thousand angels, and the strength of ten thousand elephants.