What will 2008 bring? Eight years ago we were supposed to be slain by the millenium bug. That turned out to be a non-event. No one can possibly know the future. Life is one day at a time and no one save God knows the future. I know I’ll be getting older, but getting older doesn’t have to mean getting narrow. I hope that I continue to grow in the new year. I hope I continue to be open to new learning and insight. I wish everyone who reads these words a happy and blessed New Year. I wish for an end to war. I wish that my own country would be released from the bondage of militarism, covert action, and oligarchy and that we would return to our place as a beacon to all who love freedom. I wish that the United States would turn its swords into plowshares and use our wealth to bring peace rather than war. We have the capacity to do just that. I wish that our political process would be less political and more concerned with the welfare of our world and its people. I wish that we would celebrate our diversity and see that as an expression of the Most High.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.