Happy 2010

I am so thankful for the year 2009. In it I saw one of my best friends get married, and I got to experience her family's beautiful culture in a big way on New Year's 2009.

I wrote a thesis, finished graduate school, and saw the first bi-racial US president sworn into office.

I worked three jobs simultaneously and did pysch experiments in order to get pocket money for Starbucks. I adopted a cat, and lived in a Baltimore row house for a month.

I became a vegetarian and have only eaten a few pieces of chicken, one hot dog, some Slim Jim's, and some accidental "sweet bread" and shrimp the whole year. So I saved our environment over a ton *literally* of carbon emissions. In sheer size and quantity, it's by far my biggest accomplishment this year.

I also moved to New England like I've wanted to for a decade and met, very surprisingly, my financial goals for the year to get a job that I love making X amount of money and to start a personal retirement account so I don't have to rely on stocks or a 401K. I am entering 2010 with no credit card debt, after an extremely tumultuous financial year. It's not without it's ups and downs (pro: I witnessed a beautiful New England autumn; con: through my windshield mostly during my 45 minute commutes down the interstate to work), but this choice was the right choice for me, and I love my life here.

I have laughed much with friends and family, and have kept those I love near to me. I don't know where I would be or what I would do without them.

I have gotten closer to God and more bold in loving God in so many different ways this year. Making peace with the peace that indwells all of us is a life-long journey, and now I can pursue it with full confidence.

So it has not been a wasted year. It started out half-way across the world, and it feels in some ways like I have been running the distance back home. But in 2010, I anticipate a steady stream of goodness to come from the world around me and my interaction with all beings. I want to appreciate my blessings and live purely in them, giving back to them the joy they give to me.

I hope you find this time a continuation of the good things in your life and turning point of fuller peace and contentment in the place where you are, in each moment of 2010.