NAVIDAD

Maybe it's just me, but this sounds so familiar, like it happened this year. What do you think? --- Marlene

Hello everyone!

2001 has been a year of happiness, laughter, pain, discoveries, tears, growth, reflection, love, hospital, friends, sushi and sashimi, trips,jazz, sand, beaches, snow, mountains, 'political' debates, rivers, food, wine, back rubs, wok cooking, work, re-encounters, frustrations,sunsets and sunrises, hugs, tequila, dolphins (again, yes!!) and many other positive experiences. I would like to start by thanking you for your help in making 2001 so precious.

Some have helped and never realised nor care how they did. Others might be wondering how they did help. Well, you all have come into my life and touched me in a certain way or another. Some have mastered to "radically induce" me to positively change my wrong-doings while others gave me the little push I needed to realise that certain changes could be made and 'had' to be made. I chose to change, for the better, some of my shi**y attitudes and behaviours. I was able to re-evaluate my basic definitions and grow.

Christmas is the season of the year where most humans try to be nice to others just "because it is Christmas". Don't you agree, however, that we should all try our best to be good to each other the rest of the year also? In everyday living? Don't you think that listening is much needed in many occasions? Don't you agree that saying 'I am sorry', and meaning it, can be done anytime and not only for a special occasion? Don't you agree that a hug should be given whenever we want to?

The year coming to an end is an excellent chance to evaluate how all has worked out in the last twelve months. I do think we need to evaluate at the end of each day how all has been that day, but this is like the closing of the accounting year. It is time to look at the last 12 months as whole and decide and forecast. Has it been fruitful and will the tendency to be so continue in the future? Did I change like I wanted to change? Do adjustments have to be made and, if so, do I choose to do so? Do I want to grow or stagnate?

During 2002, I will do my best to pass the Season's 'niceness' to all coming days of my life. It does not mean I will say to people what they want to hear. However, I will make no assumptions. I will ask questions and then express what I want to say. I will work on saying only what I mean. I will, in other words, do my best to grow, observe, talk less, be better and more open, loving, upright, and learn from all around me. I will enjoy the silence and its music. I will say 'I love you' without fear and cry whenever I feel like it I will smile often and laugh for 'no reason'. I will give the best of myself.

Let us evaluate at the end of 2002 but in the mean time, please help me to grow and to carry out my above compromise. You might have to take me to the principal's office for not doing the homework or procrastinating... do so if needed! Thanks in advance!