taking stock, 2016

1. we buy a new place! we renovate again! we see God's provisions for contingencies we cannot begin to anticipate! and we move next week! i cannot begin to imagine the what-if's if we did not have a higher help
2. several more getaways. the promised land, for the first time. a road trip with J and J and Y. spain. times together, just two of us. summer with J2. winter with J1. undeserved pleasures but gladsome ones nevertheless
3. my second mission trip, which clarifies my thinking that it should be my last. simply because the greater good is served better in other ways
4. correspondence with Y. she makes me try to be a better example
5. people. patients and colleagues and friends and bosses. who smoothen my rough edges and who restore my soul
6. and, in other news, E mellows a bit this year. we irretrievably lose fewer pieces of furniture