Year 2017 is ending. Year 2018 is coming. Tradition of a new year’s resolution has been with us for centuries to compel one’s self to change for the better. That their life journey will bring them to their goals, that they will leave bad behavior, that they will focus on acting towards their dreams. The only thing constant in this world is change and it can some any second of our lives and the greatest impetus to that is our effort to effect that change.
On the other hand, we often tend to wish for more material things in life, something that we may have to change as every new year rolls in. We need material things to make our lives more comfortable and there are people who really need these – the survivors of disasters, those who are struggling to bring food to the table, those who are experiencing drought, famine, wars, among others. Their situation can serve to temper our tendency to be materialistic. We might as well reflect on these and focus on our relationships, charity, nurture, and bringing hope to others.
While it is true that wishes and resolutions for the New Year can do a lot in improving our outlook in life, we only tend to make good of the said wishes and resolutions in the initial days, weeks or even months of the New Year. After sometime, we go back to our old ways.
What matters to us should be the good health, the stable job, the intact family, and the peaceful community that we have not only in our city but also in the Cordillera region. We must pray for more blessings of health, for health is wealth as they say. When we are healthy, we can be more effective and efficient in our work. We can enjoy life more. Let us not forget that good health is the foundation of better productivity. The material things that we possess have no probative value in life for we cannot enjoy the material things we have if we are not healthy, and we may even lose these because of our illness.
We must wish that our moral and spiritual values improve so that we sustain our trust in God to guide us in our endeavors in life, to lead us to the right path in our desire to improve the way we face challenges that come our way.
The best thing that we can do now is to reflect on the past and ponder on the future. Let us have a definite goal in life that we want to achieve and work on it through sincere, passionate and painstaking effort coupled with the desire to sacrifice and the ability to render unrelenting and uncompromising service to our fellowmen. Let the material things we wish for be the things we need to make us more productive, save us time we can spend with kith and kin, make us help others more.
Let us welcome Year 2018 with hope and optimism, increased efforts for good health, better quality of life and the willingness to serve our neighbors as we would serve ourselves.