A New Year and New Thinking*

From my family to yours, wishing you all a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!

Let's welcome 2014 with optimism, hope, gratitude and faith.

Hope that our lives get better, our world safer and more peaceful. Believe that changes and challenges will be overcome with grace and certainty. Be grateful that we're alive and well, and enjoying our freedom and liberty. Thank God for our families and friends.

My New Year's resolutions are to always look at the brighter side of life, to love life and to do something that makes a difference, something that makes us happy and useful. We have to stay positive if we want to get better in life.

Ever day holds the promise of a new beginning. Hence, a new year could mean a new beginning, a fresh start at life, and a new thinking to take into consideration.

I'd like to share with you "New Year, New Thinking," my raw English translation of my original Ilokano poem, "Baro a Tawen, Baro a Nakem," which appeared in www.iluko.com in 2008, and was posted in my blog, onebuddingpoet/writer-chris.blogspot.com last year.

While English and P/Filipino/Tagalog are two official languages in the Philippines, used extensively in schools, academe, and commerce, Ilokano is the predominant language in the northern Philippines (Luzon) and the nation's third most-spoken language, with P/Filipino/Tagalog and Cebuano as the first and second, respectively. It's widely spoken by millions of Ilokanos (or Filipinos of Ilokano heritage) worldwide.

New Year, New Thinking

New year, new thinking
changing our old, ineffective ways
so that we'll have a better life
out of the seemingly deep blue sea.

New year, new thinking
always remembering our fellow men and women
guiding, caring for, and making them at ease
so their lives and ours get better.

New year, new thinking
forgetting our animosity and hate
our enemies becoming our friends
and, thus, Love in the world prevails.

New year, new thinking
safeguarding our health, our wealth
our life and thoughts, as well,
\hence, our life prolonged and worth living.

Send me an email if you'd like to see the original poem in Ilokano.

CHRIS A. QUILPA, a U.S. Navy retired veteran, is a long-time resident of Suffolk. Although he knows other languages, he is fluent in English, P/Filipino and Ilokano. Email him at chris.a.quilpa@gmail.com.

*Appeared in Suffolk News-Herald's Opinion, page 4, Tuesday, January 7, 2014. For more information, visit their website at www.suffolknewsherald.com.