...and the rest of what's left

new year thoughts over belgian beer and chocolates

this is a little bit late, i know, for sharing with you my thoughts on christmas and the new Year, so forgive me. I have just recently gathered my wits after much (okay, not that much) isolation from the world i used to know.

it was the first christmas and new year that i have spent in a different country away from my family and friends, people who are constant staples in the most memorable banquets in my mind, especially in the season most filipinos would rather not spend alone.

i have been having this itch to grunt about staying by myself for the holidays when i could have travelled and see how people on this side of the globe celebrate the season. but, wisdom aside, i decided to embrace the aloneness to test my endurance. and i lived! as one classmate here told me in a recent email, a thing that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. i am alive to tell the tale. it's now my badge. and whether i'll call it an honorable badge is still worth contemplating.

spending time alone has given me the opportunity to think about things that i usually shrug off when everything else is about me and my work. like what's most important to me. like my family. like my friends. my teachers.

this reminds me of what my fave reading is on nights that i tend to wax sentimental thoughts. i go back and bask in the thoughts of my personal god, kahlil gibran (i call him kahlil, i'm on a first name basis with this guy, heheh). kahlil says that our appreciation for people important to us is clearer in their absence "as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain." enough said.

from where i am now, you are all dearly missed. i very much appreciate how you have affected my life, this past year most of all. i have always valued the most life's lessons that i learn when i'm with, and now, without you. each lesson is unique, as unique as every person in my life.

i look back to all the blessings that i have received and you are definitely one of them.

to you and to your family, my fervent wish is more love and laughter in the new year! God bless us all as always...

bear hugs.

PS> not that i did not party here! hello. i did. took swigs of beer and wine (not a good combination, trust me) and danced till my muscles ached. :)


"For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live." Kahlil Gibran

this is marc's version of the truth, sometime at 11:36 AM if you can't live with it, he can.