There’s about two weeks before I turn 30. This week I am back home in Vancouver for Christmas. Perhaps one notices more when one’s been away, because I am acutely aware of the passage of time here. Everywhere I look I am reminded that I am aging, and so are my parents and my friends.

Over drinks my friends did our annual rounds of “what’s your new years resolution?” I hadn’t thought about it, so I just flubbed things about wanting to save more money, and speak at design conferences. But really, who cares? Who cares about that when I only saw my parents three times last year, and I am losing touch with my friends, and I don’t even have a recent picture of them (nor myself)?

I think I have a better new year resolution. This year I should write some letters. No pseudo-intellectual missives. No wittiness. Just honest-to-goodness letters that ostensibly updates folks about my life, but is really about saying, “hey, I miss you, and I am glad you are (or were) in my life.” Maybe I’ll start small – just one letter in January. Or smaller still, just a list with three names on it by the first week of the new year.

Because, hey, I did miss you, and I am glad you’re in my life.