Counting

10, 9, 8, 7...

We count the hours, minutes, and seconds left before the new year. We anticipate that turning hands of the clock as it reads 00:00 --- not only to say it's the start of a new day, but more importantly the start of a new year. We marvel at the fireworks in the sky, as we hear the lot of noise trying to outdo the noise we did the past year. We shout, we jump and we celebrate the coming of the new year because we welcome the hope it gives us. We welcome the newness of the year, hoping it will bring about changes to the things we hope would change, whether to bring something novel or at least an improvement to our lives. It's one of the year's grandest celebration, and it deserves its grandeur for it gives us hope.

As the noise settles in, and little by little we fall in to the silence of the first day of the year, we look back a little and hope to be back in counting the hours, minutes and seconds of the coming new year. We're not used to this sudden silence. It's odd after having made that lot of noise. We start to settle in with the new year, and we try to see if in this matter of few hours that has passed, change has really effected itself on us. We hear traces of excess fireworks from the previous night, and we look around to see the lot of mess we created. The celebration seems to have ended, until we find ourselves back to be doing what we used to do.

Yet in this silence, as we try to make sense of the year that has gone by, we start to do the real counting. We count the ways by which we disappointed our loved ones. We recall how many times we have made a fall over our own stupidities. We bring to mind what we had aimed at the start of the year. We see if we were able to cross out at least one resolution in our list. And then what?

And then we count the friendships we've made over the past year, we take note of the new people we've met, and old friendships that have gone deeper. We recall the good things we did (and hopefully Santa had taken note of it). We remember how that past year has brought happiness to our lives, and hopefully how we ourselves have brought happiness to other people's lives. We remember, and then we keep in mind those people that have loved us, those people that have brought peace and happiness without their knowing, those people that have held on to us for help, and those people whom we've held on for hope. Until we find ourselves counting the people that count in our lives, but this time without the noise with which we welcomed the new year. In silence we feel grateful for these people, in silence we appreciate the year that has gone by.

In the end, we find ourselves appreciating the little things that had gone by.

Start of the new year? No need to wait for the next December 31 to start the counting. We can start the counting as soon as we've settled in this new year. 365 days in counting... Counting of what? of the good people to thank, of those we need to say sorry to, and those we want to forgive.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Happy New Year! :)