So! What's been happening this year...

I don't do NY resolutions. I'm not at all the resolute type.
I don't really do stock taking either. I forget things.

Still, I'm pretty sure it's been one hell of a good year.

I tend to take everything I'm told with a pinch of salt...to filter all information with a quick mental check on the source of the information, the reasons there might be for offering misinformation or half-information or straightforward lies. Before accepting what I'm told I consider possible errors and ignorances and self deceits. Can't help it, my mind always mutters "Oh yeah and who told you that and why did they tell you it and what do you need from it and what are you missing out". When someone says this is black and white I try and imagine the white and black point of view.
This is a useful way of avoiding disappointment and hiding ignorance (I have lots of that) but I was reminded this morning by a very good friend that it also leads to a slightly jaundiced view of the world.* I said something like "well we'll see" about youngest's current relationship and I forget what my friend said but it made me think 'you are a cynical old cow sometimes. Ease up a bit and have a bit more trust. It could be that my natural "Oh yeah" reaction has been bad for my loved ones! I should maybe stop carrying my head slightly tilted to one side to see what's on the other side of everything and look at the face of things for a while. Listen to the exact words spoken instead of reading stuff into them and listening to that.
I don't know, it just seemed like a good thought at the time. Something I might try to remember. A mental tic I could usefully consider.

So -
Top of the good things has to be the literary successes and the engagement of my middle daughter.
Closely followed by very cautious hopes for the continuance of youngest's current contentment and happiness with a new partner.
Eldest is still happy with his lovely girlfriend and that is still good.
I've met some very lovely people this year through this weird blog medium and I hope to see them all again in 2007. I also have some 'friendships' through the same medium which are deeply rewarding and entertaining :)
Two of my friends have met through the internet and the happiness of two people, who truly deserve it, is an absolute joy.
Some time soon (How long Oh Lord???) I will have my very own laptop :)
After many years of decidedly rocky (not to say stony and stormy) passages, the relationship Barney and I have seems to be remarkably solid...full marks to both of us for perseverance, tact and tolerance (rarely used by both of us at the same time but often enough by one or the other that we've overcome the times when we both lost it completely :) (This should be at the top of the list really but it's more of an ongoing thing than one confined to a single year).
I've seen leopards with my own eyes. I love leopards!
I have seen pictures in blogs and on Flickr which make me happy because they are SO GOOD!
And I've posted one or two which I'm proud of :)

On the other hand, I listened to the news tonight and it was depressing and sad and I feel so sorry for people who's lives have no hope in sight of becoming stable and safe and happy. I can't believe some godawful idiot let their dog kill their baby granddaughter.
And one of my best friends has had cancer and I didn't know.
There's a list as long as the good stuff but I'll be lazy and skip the rest of it. Suffice to say that I shall ask family, next year, to buy cows and sheep for hungry families instead of giving me pretty knick knacks and notepads for Christmas. I've got more good things than my share by a very long way and for heaven's sake, at my age I can live without the pretty parcels! Ooh, that reminds me I haven't actually paid for the Christmas card goat! Er, share of a goat. Er well, actually share of a pair of breeding goats....must do that tomorrow :)

Meanwhile I have to pass on a thing Frangelita's HF said yesterday when we played the hat game (where you write famous names on bits of paper and put them in a hat and everyone picks one out and tries to describe the famous person to the next player so they can guess who it is). HF picked God out of the hat and his description was "an omnipresent sort of guy"**. LOL. I shall treasure that.
*Jaundiced suggesting a yellow tinted view ...as opposed to a view through rose tinted glasses. Which I suppose is equally in error :)
**It might have been omniscient...just as good either way :)