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Manila Bulletin devider devider The new year on our mind

The new year on our mind

By Mr. Fu
Published Jan 2, 2018 10:00 pm

By Grace M. Pulido Tan

A happy and abundant 2018! I am one of the 96% of Filipinos entering the new year “with hope rather than fear,” per the latest SWS survey. This was before Urduja and Vinta, but whatever, resilience and optimism are who we are.

Up until I caught the year-end report of major broadcasts, I did not quite realize what a truly tough year 2017 had been. We had more than our fair share of natural calamities – typhoons, floods, landslides, earthquakes – displacing and claiming thousands of life. We had man-made disasters galore – massive road accidents, fire, crime, and the ubiquitous shooting deaths in the name of the drug war. And Marawi. How could we have suffered such afflictions?

Our institutions and processes were rocked with epic and never-seen-before uh, happenings. Revelations of large-scale corruption hogged the headlines. Social media sank our credulity to the pits with pervasive fake news and trolls. Our sanity was challenged by numerous straight-face story telling that defied common sense and logic. And then, Dengvaxia …

I lost two of my closest friends, both in their prime and seemingly fit. Several others have had serious health challenges and some did not make it. I also held hands with friends going through personal and relational crises, the lonely and confused. Practically everyone in my circle was eager to turn the page, impatient for 2017 to end and 2018 to finally come.

But in adversity, there was grace and thanksgiving. Every little success and milestone became a great celebration; every visit to and from family and friends a most welcome respite. Even in the most banal, we endeavored to find God, joy, mercy and hope.

Indeed, there is much, and they are to be found in ourselves and in our bedrock, the family – ironically, the very same pillars we often take for granted. Millenial Enzo’s eulogy to his father, one of my dear friends who passed shortly before Christmas, says it poignantly:

“When my dad passed away … I was … blaming myself for not spending enough time with him – for not giving him enough chances to bond with me, choosing not to drink a bottle or two beers with him when we ate out, for shaking my head and getting angry with him whenever he scolded  me for something I perceived as insignificant, or – in his own words – taking him or other things for granted… I’m very grateful to have shared a moment with my dad … where we both ended up crying and saying I love you to each other after an argument… the last time I remember telling him that I love him. I am very grateful and proud to be his son … and I’ll be bringing a beer or two just like how (he) always wanted.”

This is the new year on my mind, embracing and drawing strength from family and the bonds that tie us, celebrating every moment we can have with them, and making time for what truly counts. The world can go whichever way in 2018, but family – with all its imperfections – will always be here for us.

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