Holiday Greetings from Waldlaw

I wanted to send everyone who reads this blog warm holiday greetings. It has been quite a year, and next year promises to be equally exciting -- in both good ways and bad. Reflecting on the year gone by, this has been a year of great growth for me and mine. I launched my website almost a year ago, and have been amazed and thrilled by the difference it has made in my ability to reach people beyond my immediate circle of professional and personal acquaintances. I have to send out a huge "thank you!" to the designer and keeper of my website, Chris Dunaway, without whom I could never have made it all work. (For info on Chris and her business, go to http://www.hankmagee.com.) I finally have a computer network that actually works, thanks to my technical support person, Norm Meislich. And to all of you who read my blog, I have a confession and a special word of thanks. When I first started blogging, I was a true skeptic. The whole thing seemed like a gimmick -- the trend of the moment -- nothing to take seriously. But blogging has been an amazing experience for me in several ways: (1) it has given me a way to keep my website fresh and up-to-the-minute, without wearing out Chris; (2) it has given me a way to speak out about topics that interest and inspire me -- whether to joy or to anger -- without having to deal with the complexities of writing articles that I have to get published by others; and (3) it has allowed me to communicate in a much more meaningful and personal way with my clients, and on a much broader scale, than I otherwise could. It never ceases to amaze me how many people actually read my blog -- and it gives me great pleasure when a new client walks into my office already having a sense of my philosophy, and already feeling a sense of connection with me as a person, based on what they've read here. Not to mention the notes I get from older clients, and from friends, remarking on something I wrote in a blog posting. It makes me feel like I'm engaged in an on-going dialogue with a much larger community than I actually have time to keep in regular contact with -- and for that expanded community I am very grateful. So thank you to all of you who are reading this blog. Without you, waldlaw wouldn't be what it is today.