In the style of all these types of year-end communications my plan is to talk about the year just passed, and I preface it by borrowing from Dickens—these are the times that try men’s souls. They are times that are trying this woman’s soul as well, and the overriding theme of this year, for me, has been a struggle to keep my faith. Not just my faith in God, in a wise and all-knowing someone who guides the paths we walk, but also my faith in myself, and my faith that we choose our destinies, that no matter how difficult we find the path we’re on, we can only come out the better for walking it. That’s because 2008, with a nod to my grandma, was my year of eating the frog/Trish Gannon, River Journal. More here.

Question: Did 2008 try your soul? Or make you eat frog?