Happy New Year! New York

A sore throat could be a blessing. Two weeks before the year 2012 came to close, I was down with sore throat. Down meaning unable to talk, and that is really down for me. So it was a good chance for me to keep quiet most of the time, and do my annual practice of discarding old, useless files and junk. In three days, I finished my clean-up, just in time when my immune system won the fight against my sore throat.

So I welcome 2013 with excitement and offer these professional and personal plans to the One. That is just who I am and accustomed to do, and I go my merry way, as usual.

2013 is the 13th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century. For the Gregorian Calendar, this is the 2013th year of Anno Domini and 5773rd year for the Jewish Calendar. For the Islamic Calendar, 2013 is 1434.

There is something funny about time. Although human beings box themselves in time only for purposes of measurement and memory, like in years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds, there is actually more to it than just the ticking of the clock.

The Kaballah definition of time is this: the distance between cause and effect, the separation of action and reaction, the gap between deed and dividend, the divide between crime and consequence, and the distance between good and its reward.

For somebody maturing, I gladly embrace this deep meaning.

Albert Einstein does not have an absolute definition of time. In fact, he says time is an illusion and has two definitions of it. Time to him is when the event is instantaneous (moment) and time of event duration (the intermediate between two moments, such as the moment the train leaves the station and the moment the train arrives in the other station).

On that note, there is no questioning Einstein. He was a humor-filled genius and a deeply spiritual man who revered nature and order and who did not think that a personal God would interfere in the natural laws of physics.

Time for me takes a pragmatic meaning too. I am blessed to have been shared a personal note by my favorite high school teacher in my autograph (you know, that famous notebook in high school where your friends define themselves, and love, and friendships, and crushes) which has shaped my attitude towards time for the better.

My Speech teacher Ramona Alino goes to write on my autograph: Time is precious. Don’t waste any of it. Use it wisely and lovingly, for yourself and others. Do it now, before it is too late.

This note has stuck in my head ever since. And I have learned to value and make use of time, wisely and lovingly as much as I can.

For new year 2013, it still has to be that way.

Best wishes, everyone!