We're almost at the end of the first decade of this new millennium. In looking back at where I was 10 years ago, even though my marriage was a terminal failure, the X and I spent and unplanned and expensive New Year's Eve on The Ugly Duckling, a dinner cruise ship docked at Navy Pier. After dinner, we stood on the deck, the wind chill of our marriage equal to the icy night air, and although the splendid display of fireworks over the lakefront was spectacular, sharing it within the context of a dead marriage, made it empty. Nine months later, I finally found the courage to leave her, only looking back to make sure she was no longer in sight.

Y2K, the apocalyptical warning about all of the worlds computers crashing because they were not prepared for the year 2000, was much ado about nothing. It did not happen.

During much of this decade, I've worked very hard to change myself, my way of thinking and behavior, starting with my relationships with myself and my higher power, and then fanning outward with my relationships to others -- family, friends, colleagues, and associates, old and new. I've grown older, finding that my knees rebel against the added weight I've gained from my depression weight loss at the end of the marriage to the present. Sure the holiday season may have added a few pounds, but I'm still easily 20lbs overweight. My face has aged gracefully, but my body struggles with gravity.

During this decade, professionally I've gone from being English Department Chair to Technology Coordinator to Freshman English Teacher to Displaced Teacher to Retired. Forces have worked with and against me, or more accurately I've learned how to work with these forces, and presently I'm adjusting to retirement from the Chicago Public Schools.

I have not remarried, but I have reestablished, rekindled, and renewed old relationships, and have forged new ones, redefining my understanding of intimacy. I feel richer in so many ways as I approach 2010, and I am grateful for my recovery journey, for it truly has helped me change.