Having a little faith...

Adapted from my e-mail...

Happy New Year!

Now how am I going to make a few resolutions for this year?

As I write, I am down to three months and 17 days, or if one prefers to be exact, 76 days before my contract ends and I will be due for a vacation. Some of my Indian colleagues transpose their v's and w's and their f's and v's. In the first case, "visa" becomes "wisa," while in the second, I'd rather not quote how they pronounce "vacation."

Resolutions, resolutions, let's pull out a few ones out of the hat from years gone by:

2001: Hold on to a job, at least longer than one year.

Status: Achieved, though only in 2003. I'm fighting for the "inches" of my career, in the words of Tony D (played by Al Pacino) in "Any Given Sunday." So far, doing okay.

2002: Never be held hostage by the opinions of others.

Status: It worked a great deal in '02 and '03, but here in KSA I'm on a different operating system so the jury's still out.

2003: Get something meaningful done in my job.

Status: I FAILED! Which led to...

2004: Dust off the cobwebs on my career and do something more challenging and more importantly, more financially rewarding.

Status: Am now finishing my first OFW contract, which I never dreamed of doing. Ever. But now that I'm here, it's a mixed bag of good and bad. Mostly good.

So what does 2005 bring? It is said that the absence of one thing draws more acute attention to it. What I don't have here:

a) Constant presence of family
b) The nourishment from a spiritual community (technically I could get some, but I don't want to switch religions just yet, or to belong to an organized group over here)
c) A steady relationship which would lead to a commitment. Of course, the side benefits that go with it. Or not.
d) Alcohol (NOT!)

2004 has been a really rough year on the world. I'm not about to go "millennial" and say this is the time of the "rapture" (as wonderfully advertised by Wilde E. Almeda, hehe), but there are signs that for life to be more meaningful, we have to go back to what is important. PDA's, new cars and such trappings one may not have, but one may derive joy and contentment from what one does, or with those that one loves.

I'd like to say 2005 would be a great year to build up on my faith life. Whether this would bring me to other things, I don't really know. But that sense of wonder, that strength of conviction, I'm sure, would give me a more solid anchor in these challenging times. I trust it will do the same for you, too.

Have a great 2005 everyone!

"When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly." - Barbara J. Winter -