we are upon a new year. as is the customary we all look back at what 2008 was for us and what 2009 we hope to be. so, what happened in 2008? well…

• we introduced Eikon, our artistic communities, to our youth & church community. we expanded to have a writing and improv group this fall to add onto our photography groups. my hope is to take the failing game room and turn it into a studio room for visual arts.
• my goddaughter Madalyn Rose Richardson was born in march. we are all super pleased & it was fun to be there to take photos and play. luckily she looks a lot like her mother.
• our conference terminated the children's and youth ministries positions at the conference staff level. this was a sudden surprise and being the conference youth coordinator i was a portal for much frustration. this was a stressful time for erin & myself. lots of energy and prayer went into conversations and plans. in the end we actually improved our standings by establishing a fulltime youth & young adult person. but it didn't resolve the hurt from poor decisions and poor communication.
• nt wright came to nashville as part of his 'surprised by hope' book tour. it was amazing to see the array of people who came out. it was a fun time for erin and i to be geek theologians for the night together. we also had a good time with thunder & emily afterwards tasting some new brews.
• general conference happened this year in my united methodist church tribe. cool experience for that was going totally add and watching in second life with a bunch of other church nerds. it was actually quite helpful to keep up and have others explain 'what the hell just happened?' kind of stuff.
• i finished up our conference's youth ministry institute 2. it was a great experience. i graduated from youth ministry institute one some years back so getting around a bunch of youth leaders again and talking some serious shop was good fun.
• jason & i went to willow creek for shift conference. i was on invite from the willow folks and was happy to take up their hospitality. maybe they will ask me back to take photos for them as they are still using them for their promo stuff.
• the summer came and went with missions experiences and other trips, not to mention vbs. i was really tired at the end of this summer. i think i am still tired from the summer.
• took a great vacation with my family to fort morgan alabama. it was a great week. perfect place, perfectly on the beach. did the labor day weekend house boat trip with erin's fam. milestone of this trip, her dad and i went to play golf and i broke into the 70's. first time since early college days, 10 plus years, i have done that (i basically gave up golf after tanking & not making alabama's golf team).
• i got a pedicure.. the first for me & for someone who wears flip flops year round, probably something i should do again.
• my alama mater, the university of alabama, made its resurgence back onto the college football landscape. hate to say it but i really do have an emotional tie in with my bama football and it was a great fall.
• we finished out 3rd phase of our reminagining the youth lounge project. this was the intensive and highest impacting phase. the youth and the church are well pleased with how it turned out and seeing that we didn't stray from the original plan the youth devised some 2 years prior i'd say our discernment process that went into it had a bunch of God written onto it.
• the phillies won the world series.. i'm still thinking that was a dream.
• erin & i took an excursion out to albuquerque for the christian educators fellowship conference. i was teaching a series of technology & social media workshops. 
• my adoptive little brother (i am the adopted oldest son of the piper family), andy piper and his sister becky, opened up pied piper eatery. we are really excited for them & the restaraunt is doing really well.
• last big thing, i got asked to be on the board for the united methodist reporter communications. i'm pretty stoked about this one.. actually really stoked. they were also so kind to have me as a special commentator. 
• the only other thing, which will lead into 2009, erin & i started actively trying to have kids. so far, nothing to report which is okay, we are still just a few months into giving this a go.

so we get into 2009

• want to have a little richardson of our own.
• i hope to get into better shape. would like to loose like 50lbs. i lost like 20 over '08, but i think i gained most of it back as i never started a work our regiment.
• i want to finish more books this year. last year i started more books that i didn't, or am still trying to, finish.
• buy less stuff. this goes for me personally and professionally. one our church is in a budget crunch, so its necessary, but for ecology reasons.
• put together some long standing high impact projects. i've got some stuff in the works already that i hope will be some real impacts on church, community, and family.
• deepen 5 relationships a month. this might be a dinner/lunch conversation or doing something energetic.
• get outdoors. part of loosing weight is so i can fit back into my rock climbing harness (safely), so i don't have to "buy" a new one, and give us an old/new thing to do with our free time. also want to try out 2 new caves. this i'll have to do with my brother, erin doesn't like the caves.
• write more.. this might be an ebook, paper book, bunch of articles, or all the above. i want to take all these thoughts and put them into some framework to share with the world.
• take an extended retreat to a monastery. its been 2 years since i did my last extended retreat. i feel due.
• downsize the stuff of our life.. literal stuff and calendar stuff. i did better in 2008 than in prior years. the thing i didn't do well is that i stacked stuff, so i had spurts of many things.
• find a rhythm to my spiritual life. being a youth minister is tough, so many odd hours and demands of time & energy. i seek to find rhythm to life
• did i mention grow the family? yeah, that will be a big one and will probably reframe just about everything else on this list.

i wish & pray the best for you my friends in 2009.
shalom
-gavi