I hope to deepen my faith and practice and think I'm on the brink. On a practical side, I think I'll bring my activities into greater alignment with my values, and on a spiritual level, I think I'm headed for greater clarity.

Bring it on!!

I have been seeking to define the new norm in my brand new empty-nest-ness. I want to affirmatively choose it, rather than realize in a year what I've become by default. I don't like default. It even sounds bad de (un, NOT) FAULT. What part of this word is good?

In a peace-promoting vein, I want to note that in 1992 California became the 7th state to ban discrimination against gays (thanks, Cat Lovers Against the Bomb calendar). Who were the first 6, and when?

And the cost of wars since 2001 is $913B. This is for both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And this is just the cost of the wars for the U.S. This staggering sum is just as of this moment. But when you read it that price will be history. Visit www.costofwar.com to get the latest but not greatest.

Peace, y'all

Molly