Thoughts for the Year's End

It's 7pm here in Manila, and already a good portion of the city folk are going crazy over the coming year. Kids as young as 3 or 4 years old are running along the streets with lighted fireworks in their hand, their parents idly watching by, and everyone who's anyone who wants to be someone is somewhere, anywhere, for the party of the year (end?).

As I look back at 2007, however short it was, I guess it would be healthy to remind myself of my faults as well. When this year began, I resolved to be more truthful and even brutally honest with myself; instead I still find myself, on occasion, living in a dream world that even Don Quixote would find absurd. I resolved to be a better person, but became grumpier, perhaps even less friendly. I resolved to finally take a stand about certain things in my life that have burdened me ever since I could remember, but only wound up more scared, more evasive, than I was before. Yes, 2007 was a great year for me, but simultaneously very trying as well. My dream to get into the Dean's List once more, sadly, fell short, a good portion of my study time being allotted instead to partying and an assortment of other miscellanies that don't always mesh well with academics.

I guess I should be angry at myself. My parents had always told me that I was too hard to please, and it is true that I am, and always have been, my biggest critic. But if there is one thing I learned in 2007 that is sure to stick with me is the thought that I am never alone. For all my gripes, my failures, my shortcomings and personal defects, I've found that God always sends His graces in the most 'crooked' way possible. If I didn't see it, it is probably because I wasn't really looking anyways. Life is simple, it's just that we sometimes have too many concerns to see this fact.

In the end, I have a lot of things to be thankful for. I am especially grateful that this blog, though admittedly still not part of the 'big league', has its own niche (finally!) in cyberspace. To all the readers of this blog, I humbly offer my deepest thanks. Blogging has decidedly played a far more important role in my life than I originally thought it would, and this is something that is very important, even touching, for me.

It is exactly four hours and twenty five minutes before we bid farewell to 2007. The New Year is practically just around the corner, so close that some of my neighbors are going crazy with their fireworks already. May our blessed Lord remind all of us that it is never too late to change, or to be forgiven.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!