Happy New Year to everyone.  It’s been quite a year. 

I have not been writing for the last month or so.  It has been quite a journey last year.  The last 6 weeks has been quite a blessed, challenging and rewarding time for me. 

Last November, I mention about a visit to my brother in law’s father in law (what a term).  He passed away last 5th of December.  I had mixed reactions because the last time I saw him, I was still hopeful that he could at least get through the Christmas season.  I am thankful to God for the time that I was able to minister to him.  It gave me the courage and confidence to be able to share my life with this man for such a short time.  Even though he is in his dying stages, the experience that I gained helped me more to focus on discovering a strength which I thought was a weakness on my part. 

Christmas was wonderful for me.  I have my wife and two kids this Christmas.  They usually go to the Philippines for the holidays and I usually stay home as the trip gets very expensive during December.  We visited some close friends and ended up having to go to two parties Christmas day.  The following day, I got an email from my son’s basketball family that his coach, Dennis Cho, passed away.  He was a very inspiring coach for my son.  Although he was able to coach him for a little less than two years, it was a good experience for him.  Virginia, his wife, is my son’s teacher in his grade school.

Last week, our pastor’s mother passed away too, from cardiac arrest, and last Sunday, our pastor underwent angioplasty.  Talk about one thing after the other.  It made me more focused on my health as well.

During this past two long weekends, I tried to take a breather on the things that I do and tried to enjoy my family more.  Not too long ago, my children were just kids running around the house but now, my eldest, Sasha is now in her senior year in high school and looking forward to her college next year.  My son just turned 15 last month and is shooting up in height and will soon get past me.

Last Friday while waiting for my tire change at Costco, I decided to jot down the left over things that I need to work on.  Writing things down sure has a way on clearing your mind, and it revealed a lot.  Judging from the list that I wrote, I would be busy for the whole January and may not have the time to at least write my blog.

January usually is the time most people work on their resolutions that never really get to be changed at all.  It’s also the time for fitness awareness after all that thanksgiving turkey, Christmas and New Year parties.  But for the most part, I feel that this is the time to look forward on a determined effort to have an awareness on our health, physically and spiritually.  We should really not wait until our bodies and health breaks down before we do something about it.  A lot of times, we take it for granted.  We worked and worked, forgetting how to take care of our bodies and by the time you know it, an overhaul is required and the bill for the overhaul is more expensive than if we try to maintain and create a healthy lifestyle.  And spiritually, if we don’t take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit, we would not have the opportunity to serve Him to our fullest extent.

So let’s make some changes this year.  Let’s take care of our bodies – our health, our minds, our relationships.  Let’s look to a brighter year ahead of us.