Must be my age and hormones. Suddenly the turning of this year seemed more pivotal than all other new years I have welcomed in the past. Plus the moving to another continent, starting careers once again, the gaining and losing... made me I guess a little more reflective than I have ever been. But I realized ... I am actually enjoying them! And so, as hopefully as I can be.. I have these new things to be excited about this year. I don't know what to call it. Goals? Resolutions? Realizations? or are they just pure wishful thinking!
With much prayers and with little help of my crossed fingers, I hope I'll make 2013 as meaningful as it can be.
1. One new challenge, a year at a time. To do something new each year, a new thing or activity I haven't done in the past. And this year, my big challenge is: *Tada! To BUILD. Yup, as in gumawa, lumikha, bumoo, magkutingting ng kung ano ano! And since my husband is an architect and a craftsman himself, I think I will be propped up in this department. Hintayin nga lang ang summer and spring for the those little carpentry works. :)
2. It will be a year of many new! Creativity is my game. Learn new skills. Explore. Try activities I haven't done before. I started by reading craft books. I'm getting giddy looking at the quaint designs! Well this is quite tied up to my no. 1 above. I also want to design, sew and draw. (cause until now, drawing a person would still mean drawing 1 circle and 5 sticks together)
3. Focus on things that I have. Nurture the present. While I have tons of things listed in my wishlist, I'll try to focus on things that God has already given me and be enormously grateful for gifts I most often take for granted. I am trying to practice a sunshiney heart that beats gratitude...especially for the things I did not control but was put together wonderfully for me. Like where I was born, to whom I was born and how I was raised. I am also grateful to the people I have met and the places I have called home even for a short period of time. (San Mateo,California, Las Pinas, Paranaque, Quezon City, Richmond & Surrey, BC)
I appreciate the things I now recognize as talents but used to take for granted, like my (just the right amount) english proficiency, ability to write (business or just plain blogging), public speaking (despite how nerve wracking it always has been). Heck, for someone who struggled to start all over again in a very tight-rigid-requiring-a-canadian-experience-workforce, these.. afforded me my job. I now sincerely thank Philippines' mandatory academic curriculum in English and my English teachers from Elementary to High School for seriously imposing Filipino children to learn english from an early age. Knowing how to communicate in english, became my ticket to start again. (and I'm not kidding!)
4. Start creating and documenting memories. Pictures, family/couple traditions. As much as I love taking pictures and collecting keepsakes, I am guilty of plainly relying collections from friends and families. Especially with the advent of "tagging" in social networks, I became a notorious "tagged" dependent. :)
I realize though that these memories will never ever come back and just like time, should never be wasted. I realized I wanted to keep something for whoever is in my/our future to see. How beautiful life is from different points in time. I have passed by a couple of years undocumented, but it sure isn't too late to start now. To infinity and beyond!
Spring and Summer 2012
Winter 2012 (I realized we still don't have a decent picture for Winter)
5. Prioritize to do things that makes me happy! Life is too short to worry. I am now 33 and those numbers breezed through without me noticing it. When I was young, I thought that people who are on their 20s are already old (ergo should be matured) and those on their 30s are toooooooo old (and again ergo should be overly matured!) ! :) I, together with many others I guess got too engrossed on living what adults ought to be and I am guilty of being too serious planning and acting it all out. I know I have my silly, unguarded and carefree times.. but I guess making room for more and choosing to spend majority of my time to things that would genuinely make me happy will allow me to be more receptive of life's offerings. Having been allowed the opportunity to recalibrate (by way of migration), I'll try to carefully choose to do things that will make my time more worthwhile simply because I love doing it. :)
Cheers to 2013 and for things that have not yet been, but still can be. :)
