Reckoning of a Resolve

1. Find a job

2. Stick to the job for at least six months (or until I find a better one)

3. Go on a diet and get fit

4. Prepare more nutritious meals for the family

5. Blog more often (at least once a week)

6. Do my norms (of piety)

The list can actually go on, but I decided to stop there. It’s already overwhelming as it is. This top 6 are actually a rehash of last year’s list (and the year before that). Not that I didn’t get to do any of them at all. I did find a job each time I set out to look or one, but the search here in New Zealand has proven to be difficult for the past four months. I am, nonetheless, hopeful that I will land one soon, with the holidays finally over.

Dieting has, however, been akin to a yoyo for me the past four years. I’d get on one, stick to it, lose weight, and gradually go back to my eating habits. Exercise? Much worse. Intermittent at most. Having struck the big 4-0 recently, however, I realise I can only count on having low blood pressure, normal cholesterol and blood sugar levels for so long. Plus, there is that need to pass the permanent residence visa we plan to apply for in the near future. I walk a bit to and fro Oxfam’s office in Newton (where I have been an online communications intern since November), but that’s just twice a week. So I’m planning on walking at least half an hour, five days a week. Soon after I get a job, I can enrol in a gym, too. As for the diet, well, I’d like to keep it simple and real. More fruits and vegetables (one serving of each everyday should do the trick), less fat and sweets (limiting the latter most specially to once a week).

A naturally consequence of the above would be the next on the list. If I eat healthy then my family will, too, since I plan and prepare our meals.

Now as a writer, I have to push myself to enhance my skills, to get my name out there. Watching “Julie & Julia” before Christmas has inspired me. If Julie Powell was able to blog her way to stardom, I can, too. One of these days (hopefully within my lifetime). Plus, there are my fellow writer-friends Janette Toral (Digital Filipino) and Max Limpag (of Sun Star) who have made names for themselves in the blogging arena.

Last, but most important on that list, is having a plan of life to help ensure my spot in God’s kingdom one day, when my time comes. Thus, the need for me to do my norms of piety – e.g., daily Mass and Communion, prayers, spiritual reading, examination of conscience, penance. In so doing, I become a better person, a better wife, a better mother; and set an example to my children in the process.

Daunting tasks, yes, but achievable.

If only I were still a child and it would all be easy and simple to do. A child’s primary job, after all, is to play. At play, a child is active, almost always bursting with energy. A child, more often than not, does what she is told and what is right for her. A child loves God with complete abandon, with all her heart and soul.

No wonder Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

So on hindsight, my one true resolve this coming New Year is to be childlike. And what better child to emulate than the Holy Child Jesus, Himself? Quite apt with the celebration of Sinulog falling on this same month. Undoubtedly one event we all shouldn’t miss.