My dear friends let me wave my hands in the air as I join you all in celebrating the coming of a new year at the same time gratefully bidding goodbye to the past.
Like it or not, the New Year has added another notch to my already desperate-to-stay-young age. As I get older I personally noticed that I start marking the passage of time not by calendars but by faces of personalities I have acquainted with and events that all came into my life. The people I came to know with their unblemished smiles and genuine tears and pain. These are the things that made the previous year so worthwhile to remember and be thankful for.
Depending on the country you are in, the year 2011 is over. And for many of us, 2011 had brought more tears than we have imagined. There were so many inhuman, blood-curdling acts, terrorist attacks, many innocent people died in wars, and the natural calamities that had visited the Philippines like Sendong — the #7 deadliest typhoons in the country.
The year 2012 is acting like a badly behaved celebrity. Frightful rumors and gossip are spreading.
According to Wikipedia, the 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs according to which cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae related to this date have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though none have been accepted by mainstream scholarship.
A New Age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth, and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the 2012 date mark the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maximum, or Earth’s collision with a black hole, passing asteroid or a planet called "Nibiru."
Scholars from various disciplines have dismissed the idea of such cataclysmic events occurring in 2012. Professional Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the extant classic Maya accounts, and that the idea that the Long Count calendar "ends" in 2012 misrepresents Maya history and culture. Astronomers and other scientists have rejected the proposed events as pseudoscience, stating that they are contradicted by simple astronomical observations.
Let the New Year be filled with God’s love and grace. Let us pray to the Divine that such incidents never happen again. However, God also wants to remind His children that, as ordinary human beings, we cannot put an end to such happenings. Typhoons, earthquakes, massacre, wars or terrorist attacks may occur again. We should try to acquire spiritual power or inner mental strength to overcome such situations.
But all those unfortunate events have made us even more prepared to face greater challenges brought by the new era, and we should be thankful for that.
I want to thank you all – both friends and foes alike. You brought more meaning to my life. I really do appreciate your kind words, your Christmas greetings, your suggestions and criticisms. I learned a lot from you in the year 2011.
Honestly, though I suffered an illness in my spinal cord that scares me greatly, 2011 is a good year for me.
As I welcome the year 2012, I thank the Lord for the year that has gone by, with all the blessings and trials it has given me.
I thank the Lord for the many blessings He gave me. I thank the Lord for the good health of my family, relatives, friends and love ones.
Each time the New Year arrives; we always aspire for something new to happen, and we can feel that. The change in the year is just part of a much bigger change. The real change has to come from within ourselves. Even if the environment changes, it will not likely bring happiness or peace to our lives. Our inner realm has to change for the better if we are to accept situations in life with proper understanding.
We usually do not count our blessings we receive everyday from God, and yet we are ever ready to complain. This attitude is wrong. God has given us so much in life—healthy bodies, sunshine, air and water. Yet, we do not express our gratitude towards God as often as we receive His grace. We should try to cultivate a heart filled with gratitude and love for God.
We may be able to think of countless reasons for feeling sad, upset or depressed. But instead of brooding over our own problems, let us think, "What can I offer to the world? What can I do for the world?" And just that thought, that positive thinking, will help us to feel happier, will help us to remain more and more open to all circumstances of life, which in turn will help others as well.
We all have to die one day, and, in fact, we are getting closer to death every moment. But even if the body perishes, the soul continues to live eternally. This is just like the electricity that continues to exist even when the bulb burns out. This is the essential principle of spirituality.
Actually, we are not afraid of death. We are afraid of the loss we will incur when we die. We are too attached to the earthly possessions, and we are afraid of losing everything. It is this attachment that causes the fear, not death in itself.
However, whatever we are attached to – our house, wife, husband, children, boyfriend, girlfriend, relations or worldly objects – are not going to accompany us on our way to the final judgment. When we leave the body, we have to leave all of these possessions as well.
So, in the short span of time given to us, let us strive to do good things that make others happy. May the Almighty Father bestow grace upon us.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!