A year of living tenuously

So 2008 draws to an end, and I can't say I'll be all that sad to leave it behind. I'm not entirely sure why, but 2008 and I have not been especially good friends. A whole mix of circumstances, at work, in my own life, health, etc., have made this year a more or less constant drain and challenge.

And yet I'm reminded of one of the terms that used to be used to describe AD years - "the year of grace". This year, more perhaps than others, has been a year of grace, where, in amongst everything going wrong, I am still able to see much going surprisingly right, and can say that, at the end of it all, I'm still standing, and still breathing, and still able to look ahead clearly to 2009.

I hope 2009 will treat me better, though it may not. But I suspect that, with grace on my side, I can handle it.