To be honest, nowadays I find myself writing less and less. Maybe it’s because the kids are getting older and it’s complicated. Or maybe it’s because I’m getting older, and it’s complicated. But there is something about the close of one year and the beginning of a new one that almost always compels me to say something, to have some sort of written reflection of my place in this world. Something that forces me to pause when every part of me, if only for self-preservation, just wants to keep plowing through the next few days. To keep getting on and getting through as all of us must and will do. I want to write something to you about what this year has meant to me, to each of you - and the only word that I keep coming back to again and again is grief. 2019 for so very many people I know and love was a year of grief. I can’t tell you that’s all there was. Honestly of course there was more. Beautiful wonderful moments! But oh the sweet and utterly brutal grief of saying goodbye to who