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by Yoly Tumangan Tubalinal.
January 1, 2011
By the time this issue hits our outlets, the year 2010 will have been the year that was and 2011, the year that is. Strange how a distant time just all of sudden startle you with an “in your face” surprise as though you had been absent for a long while and have only now come back to a whole new world.
Where’s everybody? You begin to wonder how much things have changed since you were gone. Yet, gone you were not. It just felt like it because somehow you had been oblivious of the sights and sounds in your environment. Their casual, day to day closeness to you has failed to elicit even a glimpse on your part for nothing could excite you anymore. Either the humdrum or nagging problems of everyday life had gotten into you and numbed your feelings, leaving you like a zombie, a living dead.
Cheer up! The old year is gone and here comes the new one.
Does the New Year really bring some kind of magic into our lives? Or is it just a traditional belief planted into our psyche? The answer really varies with each of us. After all, we look at things from a myriad of perspectives. Is the glass half full or is it half empty? Indeed, we look at the same things yet, sometimes we see a different image. The object that enters through our eyes isn’t necessarily the same as the object that comes out of our thought processes.
I see the magic of New Year in the mystery it evokes, the hope it summons and the excitement that comes with some great expectations of better things to come.
There’s this freshness that soothes a tired soul. For those who had a good past year, it’s a chance to count their blessings and hope for continued abundance, happiness and success, if not more. For those who had a rough year, it’s time to close that heavy door behind you and step into a new one, hoping and praying for better opportunities with a stronger resolve to try harder to succeed.
As I quietly think through the memories of days, weeks, months and a whole year gone by, I can’t help but wonder if I’d finally be able to do now the things I had failed to do then. Would I finally have the courage and determination to pursue them, stay on and never let go until they’re done? What would it take to move me from one level to the next? And if I failed last year and the previous years, what makes me think I’ll succeed this time around?
Willpower is something I can’t quite have a firm grasp of. One day I have it but the next day I don’t. How to keep me focused on one thing and seeing through its completion before letting up is a trait I’m still trying to develop at this age, believe it or not.
Maybe I should start with small things. To begin with, I can write my weekly column. I can finish my projects on a weekly basis and get our Gintong Pamana Awards Night Gala plans going and finish teverything 2 weeks before the scheduled event. I can pick up on the programs I have promised to do but never found time for. I can write my B-List and not feel spooked by it.
Like many of you, I have tons of plans to better myself and make my last remaining earth time more meaningful and God centered. And like some of you, my human weaknesses take over and get the better of me. So, I won’t make big promises or big plans this time. Starting with the small things and getting them done, I believe, is a more doable process. If I stayed on with these little things, I’d tackle the bigger ones just fine.
And since I write about political issues in our editorial, I’ll try to do away with too much politics in my column. This is not to say I won’t write about politics in my Write Connections though because I know I will. But there will be less of it. Watching too much of MSNBC, CNN and every now and then, Fox News (just to see the other side of the coin) got me all worked up that my blood pressure shot up this past year. Now, I’m on maintenance pills, thanks to the craziness of these Congressmen and Senators like Boehner, McConnell, McCain, Bachmann, et.al. and the broadcast media loonies like Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, O’Reilly and the rest of Fox News and Friends.
Finally, I’ll try not to worry too much, analyze too much and read through people’s actions too much. I’ll try to put myself in the other person’s shoes to know how my words and my actions might affect them. But know, too, that as an opinion maker, this is something I can’t really do when writing about politics and other stuff in my column.
I won’t look too long beyond tomorrow for tomorrow never ends. “Today is the day our Lord has made. Let us all rejoice and be glad in it!”
Happy New Year!