As the final hours of the year slide quietly away, it is only human to look back, tracing the paths of our days, sifting through moments that have shaped us. With the twilight of 2025 upon us, will you gather at a humble or grand table, surrounded by laughter, silence, or absence? Perhaps you have already counted your blessings—each one a dim light in the dark. Or maybe your mind is busy weaving hopeful blueprints for the dawn of 2026. Just the other day, I watched the children in CoComelon sing their gratitude for life’s simplest gifts—things we often overlook, absorbed as we are in our hurried routines. How easily we forget that wonder. If we slow down, just for a little time, we all have so many things to be grateful for. Even the most ordinary blessings are worth our quiet thanks. In this spirit of reminiscence, my heart swells with gratitude for more than I can name, but here are a few gifts that shine especially bright: Sanity Good health A job/craft The gift of memor...
HOW TOUGH IS YOUR TIME? Look up the definitions of pressure, stress, toughness, challenge, hardship. Yes, these are not mere words; they are situations we face as humans in a world where time gives no hoot about what you are going through. It keeps moving like an endless train with many passengers confused about the next stop or the condition of the engine, or the longevity of the journey. The world faces its problems. Countries fight their wars; continents battle their evils. States wrestle their fears, and it goes down to the individual. A woman fights just as a man does his demons. They come in the form of psychological traumas, financial hardships, career blocks, relationship ghosts and all sorts of whats and hows and when and who and where. In my father’s time, the challenge was having values. In my time, it is acquiring wealth or being successful. In the future, it might be visiting Mars like it was a stone throw. Who knows? Still, time is havin...