Life is so simple when you are a child. A word is taken at face value, no hidden meanings and no complications. It’s so easy to be happy, and so easy to recover from disappointments.
I’m looking at things much differently now. Yes, life has become so much more complicated. Age has something to do with that I suppose. Attitude, maturity , the need for a more meaningful existence and maybe the influence of the past, too, have all helped in shaping up a new way of looking at things It would have been so much easier to have retained the simplicity of a child and the simple way of coping with life.
Even occasions for celebration have become different. Christmas has become less important than the New Year. The new clothes and festive meals have lost their appeal. When before lechon and morcon were the very essence of the Noche Buena, now they have become a means to unwanted pounds, clogged arteries and all sorts of middle age sickness. New clothes? Nah. Maybe for my nieces, Mitch and JB.
My Christmas and the New Year now means celebrating with my loved ones. A time to gather in the family home, to have quiet moments of just catching up with what the others have been up to for the past year. A time to pray for strength and guidance for another year of battling for survival in this crumbling world. A time to reaffirm the love and affection, to show each other that you will always be there when you are needed. Never mind cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Never mind dressing up in spanking attires enough to shame royalties. Love, loyalty, self-sacrifice, faith. That is what Christmas is all about.
It’s too late now to greet all of you a Merry Christmas and too early for next Christmas. But I still wish you all the best for the coming year. Sorry for the cluttered way I wrote this blog. The end of the year has sent me into a binge of introspection and I wrote this entry with no thought for form and style. Don’t go getting a headache trying to figure out where I’m coming from.
