So came the end of another year

"A straight yet narrow path I have travelled,

Down the new roads and memory lanes,

I've soared above the clouds, dropped beneath the pits,

I swam against the rivers, sailed across the oceans.
If by anything at all,
I held on because I was made could,
By His calming Hands and careful guidance."

So here comes to the final days of another year. 

What has the year taught me?

It has taught me a lot of things of which, I won't remember learning them from this year, but things that I will hung onto for the rest of my life...

My eyes were opened this year... To how fragile life can be... To how imperfect systems can be... To how the world needs help... To how... imperfect and helpless I can be at times.

Perhaps there's more ground work to do for me. I have not grown the way I wished to but it's a step ahead, a step forward. And I know He is by my side. He will help me.

And so, it brings me to this word: Hope, the partner of Faith and Love. Surely, without Hope, I wouldn't have ended up where I am today.

As hopeless as I would have been in my earlier days, I have learned that Hope is not something you abandon... Even if the stakes are against you.

Because when there's room for Faith and Love and when there's room for stupid thoughts, there will room for Hope to always give us a second chance.

 I realize we have a mechanical flaw called sin. We cannot always be right, pure and perfect but c'est la vie. We have to face our own doings and mistakes. We have to move ahead.

There's only one way and the way is forward. I pray for each one of us that we will realize each day is a gift and not a God-given right. The past will always be the behind. The present will always be a gift. The future will always be hopeful to look at.

So came the end of another. Then the dawn of a new year... 2012.