"When a thief finds nothing to steal...

...he will steal a dagger made of sand."
-Berber Proverb

Lessons from 2008 in the School of Hard Knocks:

1. Don't try to force the handle if it doesn't want to turn.
2. Temp agencies: making more money off the miserable work you do than you bring home at the end of the day.
3. No one can make anyone else's choices for them.
   
4. Life is, still, truly, always, emphatically, yes, yes, yes - a beautiful gift.
   
5. Dogs are man's best friend.
6. Love = how fast you can forgive. (I am a poor lover).
7. No one can know you if you don't know yourself.
   
8. The Gospel is the greatest story and the true myth...if you aren't tasting Eden/The Kingdom, then you've heard the wrong gospel.
9. EVERYONE is insecure.
10. “To fail to speak of evil in the world today is to engage in bad theology. But to speak of "they" being evil and "we" being good, to say that evil is all out there and that in the warfare between good and evil others are either with us or against us—that is also bad theology.”- Jim Wallis
11. Every adventure involves a great, personal cost.
12. "Love is never far from danger." -Over the Rhine
13. Don't take pictures for people without well-written contracts.
    

Maybe I will think of some more later. Probably.