The end of 2012

In all, this was a rebuilding year. I made a lot of progress and a lot of fronts, and I don't have any regrets really about the way things went. Three months ago I was dealt another set of cards that I'm playing fairly well at the moment. 

I've had a very good week to end this year. I've spent more time with my children than I have in four years, and it felt like I was a full-time father again. I handled it and I find myself feeling more complete than I have in years.

That's what has rebuilt. I feel more prepared to be better than I ever have been before. That's going to take some work, but I want to challenge myself in the next year. 

I'm a man with no regrets. I've made many mistakes, but I don't regret any of them. I've learned from all of the failures. I don't think I've learned all of my lessons, because I keep making mistakes. But, I have a lot of confidence that I'm on the right track. 

2012 was a good year. Nothing too terrible happened. I spent a lot of time with my children. I spent a lot of time living the waves of a really great story and writing a lot about what happens around this community. I've learned a lot more about how to play the guitar, and I'm finally getting the confidence to trust in what I do. 

The next year offers a chance of being even better, because the world has moved on, and so have I. I'm living in the now armed with the tools I have earned and fashioned in the past. I look at the  next 12 months as an opportunity to make the best of it. I am whoever I am supposed to be, and it turns out I'm doing pretty good at it all. 

Say hello to the new guys

Let's say hello to the seven new plants that have entered our lives today. I took the kids shopping with the intent of doing something nice for the house. I had a little Christmas money to spend, and I'm determined to make this place even more of my home.

I bought seven new houseplants today, including a brand new fresh sago. I also got two cacti, two other succulents, and two damaged succulents including one in a hanging basket.

I'm telling you this because you were there when I got two of the other three that have been here. You gave me the spider plant that's still getting by, though it has not yet flourished how it should. I need to give it fertilizer, but I don't quite know how.

I even transferred the rhinocerous plant to a new container, a much bigger one. Its roots were severely constrained by the one it was in, and I'm hoping it can flourish like yours. My aloe say 'allo.

Last week I wrote a long message to a woman I dated that I never sent. I wanted to, but I held back. The general point was to acknowledge whatever relationship we still have, a friendship in which I gained so much, so much more than I gain from most people.

One of things I gained is a love of houseplants and a desire to turn my house into a green place. This past year I've not really had any desire to plant anything, but in the next year I am ready to plant new seeds.

I bought the sago because it reminds me of her. Some of the best times I've had were when she told me about your plants. I loved sleeping in her sun room, one of my favorite places in Charlottesville. Looking at the sago's fronds and its big pineapple-looking stem reminds me of the times I helped move it in and out of her house. I remember how she told me it was poisonous, and that you had to be careful. I remember how she said they like to be left alone, and required little maintenance.

I'm pleased to have one of my own here and I will do the best I can to take care of it. No matter what course our friendship takes, I want you to know on this last day of 2012 that I bought

A Boxing Day Manifesto

I am sitting at my home this evening on what is perhaps the most undiscovered potential holiday for America.

Dear reader, I speak of Boxing Day. I speak of the mightiness that is December 26! A day that needs to be reclaimed and have its rightful spot in the pantheon of world holidays!

I sit here alone when I should have thrown a party. I should have thrown an event that was so grand, people would celebrate the joy of Grover Cleveland. We would have engaged in all manner of Boxing Day traditions, and we would have become better people for it.

Yet, this did not happen today. I feel I have let the world down by not truly claiming my birthright as the one who made Boxing Day the perfect way to spend a day with family. For the day after Christmas should be spent with friends and colleagues in a day of reflection and merriment.

This is not the night for me to prepare for what has already happened. Mine shall be a mission over the next 364 days to plan for something magnificent.

I just don't know what it is yet because it's Boxing Day.