Farewell 2012

Tonight I've been doing Barry Manilow's "It's just another New Year's Eve" via humming, whistling, and then really singing it at the top of my lungs :D.  Yep, indeed "it's just another night, that's all it is" as Barry Manilow's voice "wafted" invisibly in and out of my head. It was not even the eve of my own New Year as I recalled my unforgettable 1st of January 2012. But that's all water under the bridge and now I can start anew. Besides Christmas, I love the beginning of each year. As each new year brings Hope and gives everyone a chance to be a better person, to do better, to begin a new story on a clean slate. I breathe in the air of Saudi Arabia and look back at the year that was starting from that one seemingly "tele novela" episode on day 1 of 2012.

I still cry a river over it when am by my lonesome but one thing I realised is that the love that my husband and I share has grown stronger after that day. We laughed more, we laughed longer. We laughed and shared stories in the dining room. Sometimes I catch myself telling my kids to keep quiet but remind myself at the same time that the dining room is the perfect venue for our family to share anecdotes, stories of our own childhood, and glow at the sound of our children's laughter. Nope, am not saying that my family is perfect but I rejoice in the knowledge that my husband and I are able to share with them our time, our whole life and our own stories. 

Last year was a year to reckon with, for a while I stopped praying. I stopped cleaning the house, I stopped blogging, I stopped planning. Like a clock that was on borrowed battery time, I just stopped. And that resulted to such an empty feeling that almost engulfed me to oblivion. I'm just so glad that I was able to lift myself up from the deep end so to speak. All the while my husband has become the source of my strength. Hence, this made me come up with an idea! Tonight we were supposed to do an activity as I prepared our own "Reflection book" where my children and I would write our thoughts about each other. What we dislike about each other's attitude and perhaps some suggestion on how this can be improved. Then on another part of the book we would each write down our own "promise to improve on". It shouldn't be too grand or too idealistic but something that we can all agree on and cheer each other on achieving. But the kids were all tired so there's always tomorrow :)

This year we all come in clean...with hopeful hearts, my family and I look forward to a better year, a more fruitful one. A year, when we can be more of help to others than the ones who need help. A year when I can finally start fulfilling a lifelong dream. A year when I can validate my passion and end it with a professional title. A year when I can stop looking back at the past and begin looking forward to a better future. So with this in mind, I say "kampai" with my "mental" alcohol and seal my faith with my promise to be a better person for my God above all else, a better wife, a better mother, daughter, sister, friend, and neighbor.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great start! And I hope all your fingers are still intact after all those firecrackers!