May the year ahead be gentler to our hearts, kinder to our nation, and truer to our shared dreams
IT WAS an uneasy year.
Some would call it an annus horribilis—a horrible year—especially for Philippine politics. From one controversy to the next, trust eroded, tempers flared, and institutions strained under public doubt.
The impeachment debacle cast a long shadow over democratic processes. Election euphoria faded quickly into skepticism.
Then came the flood control scandals, layering suspicion upon disappointment and frustration.
As if political storms were not enough, nature asserted its own force.
Typhoon after typhoon battered communities, leaving behind destruction and grief, but also quiet stories of courage and survival that rarely reached the headlines.
If time were measured only in kronos—the ticking of clocks, the turning of calendar pages—this year would feel like a long, jarring ride we could not step away from.
But the Greeks also had another word for time: kairos—God’s perfect time.
The kind of time not measured in minutes, but in meaning. It’s the time when purpose shows itself, even in the middle of chaos. It is the time that asks us to pause, reflect, and decide who we are becoming.
Perhaps that is what this year has been asking of us.
What appeared to be an annus horribilis may also be, quietly and painfully, an annus mirabilis—a year of awakening, a year when grace found its way through the cracks.
But grace, like growth, is rarely easy.
Change is messy.
And when things fall apart, maybe that’s the moment we’re being invited to rebuild—not just the systems and structures, but also our values, our priorities, our ways of showing up for each other.
As we stand at the edge of the year’s end, three small but important invitations echo in the heart: Be thankful. Let go. Move on.
Gratitude may sound misplaced after a year that felt so heavy.
But gratitude does not deny pain. Sometimes it simply acknowledges endurance.
We say thank you not because the year was perfect, but because even in its hardest moments, there were flashes of goodness—acts of kindness, moments of courage, reasons to keep going. Gratitude softens the heart and keeps bitterness from becoming our default response.
To let go doesn’t mean pretending it didn’t hurt.
It means choosing not to let it harden you.
It means forgiving even when you can’t forget, and accepting that some answers won’t come right away. It means understanding that not everything broken needs fixing. Some things need releasing.
Some endings are necessary so something new can begin.
Letting go is not weakness; it is wisdom. It is the refusal to let the past imprison the present.
Moving on doesn’t mean rushing into the next thing, ignoring the lessons of the past. It means walking forward with more clarity, more conviction, more courage.
It’s about reimagining what’s possible—not just for yourself, but for the country. It’s choosing to build better, not just rebuild. It’s deciding to hope, even when it’s easier to be cynical. It’s believing that the next chapter isn’t written yet—and that you have a part in shaping it.
This nation has survived worse. And we’ve come through stronger each time.
If we allow it, this year can become more than a string of broken headlines and unmet expectations. It can mark a turning point—a reckoning that leads to renewal.
Kairos rarely announces itself with noise or spectacle. It arrives quietly, often in the aftermath, asking us whether we will merely recover or choose to be transformed.
So before the first light of January breaks, let us look back with honesty and tenderness, not bitterness.
Let us carry forward only what strengthens us: the lessons learned, the compassion discovered, the resolve forged under pressure.
Everything else—the anger that drains us, the blame that divides us—we leave behind.
As we step into the new year, may we do so not with denial or fear, but with steady courage.
May the year ahead be gentler to our hearts, kinder to our nation, and truer to our shared dreams.
And may we meet it ready—not just hoping for better days but committed to helping bring them about.
Happy New Year!
