It's disheartening to write goals from year to year, looking back only to see you are in the same place. You can make so many promises that you get sick of yourself, but what is it that God can't do?

I'm not a great one for looking back.

I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty, so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral.

In looking back, I see nothing to regret and little to correct.

Looking back, I see that I write books about brothers and sisters, about what makes up a family, what works and what is nurturing.

In my last year of school, I was voted Class Optimist and Class Pessimist. Looking back, I realize I was only half right.