I wouldn’t have made it through the past year without my Twitter friends.  Considering I only started tweeting this year, that’s remarkable. 2010 has been the worst year of my life, and probably my wife’s but you’d have to ask her. The year started with the aftermath of a major medical crisis for my wife which almost cost us her life or our marriage or both. Then my 18.5 year old cat died. My baby and closest companion for half my life. Then I was unceremoniously laid off in May with no justification (we suspect it has to do more with my wife’s medical bills than anything but never got quite enough evidence to make a case). I had a bad relationship with a part time job boss whose “my way or the highway”/condescending approach to leadership didn’t work for me at all as an artist, as a person or as a man who’s overqualified for that job and has taught leadership for 10 years. That job ended in October and we promptly lost unemployment due to both the Texas Workforce Commission misrecording statements and an indelicate reasoning by my ex-employer.

Through all this there has been one group I could rely on to be supportive, hear me out, encourage me and generally give a damn. Seriously far too many “real world” friends disappeared when we needed them or were never there in the first place. Yet somehow a group of mostly strangers, mostly people I’d never met until October, were there for me and loaned me their strength.

So to my Twitter Friends I say, May you be richly blessed this Christmas and in the year to come. May you be blessed in measure far beyond the measure which you’ve blessed me. You deserve it, and I couldn’t have made it through without you. Here’s hoping 2011 is an incredible, amazing 2010-forgetting year for all of us!

Bryan