..and to all a safe and healthy voyage through 2008

My horoscope for 2008 reads in part "People born under your sign have a distinct appreciation of all things beautiful". It says nothing of the effect these beautiful things, people, experiences, sentiments have on my emotional state. Over Christmas my tear-ducts go into over-drive - a kindness, a hug, candlelight and carols, children, fresh snowfall, even Scrooge's "second chance" at life. I melt. It's exhausting. And beautiful. (Maybe it's a Taurus thing too when, hearing of great self-sacrifice or valor or humility, I get all snuffly and choked-up.) Christmas this year for me, with my son and daughter-in-law, was spent quietly and with more emphasis on the spiritual rather than the commercial aspect - even to the extent of ordering, as their gift, a goat for their sponsored wee laddie in Africa, or for his village. Here I must confess I did have a problem. I mean, I didn't enjoy shopping for a goat nearly as much as I would have shopping for, say, a Calvin Klein hoodie or a spa kit. But I certainly ended up feeling more virtuous with the goat. And it was a lovely, warm and meaningful Christmas.

To all, best wishes for a bright and beautiful new year, with hopefully some measure of peace in our increasingly precarious world.