Even the dinosaur is laughing...

This photo of my granddaughter Bea and her dad was taken on Christmas Day. You can see the happiness in their faces as Bea discovers how to make her new little train run along its 8-shaped track. Tim is holding Bea's new guitar, something she especially asked for. Just like the butterflies on her pajamas, she is an emerging spirit--growing every day in comprehension and the ability to modify the world into which she was born.

In a larger sense, we're all emerging from the ratty old cocoon of 2009 and bursting bright and new into the new decade. It's an exciting time to be alive.

It's also a huge challenge. The United States is a nation at war. We tend to forget this in the pageantry and parading of the holiday season. I complain constantly about being out of my own home dog-sitting. It really bothers me. But at least I'm not out on some desert in a tent, expecting to be blown to bits any minute.

Then there is climate change that no one's seriously addressing. We're just going on about our business and hoping that it will go away. Al Gore did his best to scare us into making some major leaps into conserving resources, but even he has been silent lately.

Finally, there is health care. The big problem as I see it is that the American Medical Association and the big insurance companies are not willing to clean up their acts. They won't change their wicked ways without being forced. The doctors are over-treating and over-medicating us, especially the older generation, because they can. We are not able to discern which medications are really necessary and which are just money-makers.

Old age is not a disease, people. Old age is perfectly natural. And we who are old are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful people with strong hearts and a lot of wisdom. We don't need to be prematurely buried by folks who don't have our best interests at heart. We don't need even to pay attention to our children when they tell us we are repeating ourselves. Repeating ourselves. Repeating.....