Over the holidays, I received numerous Christmas/New Year messages over the Internet. Today, I would like to share with you a touching message that I have received.
Dear FRIENDS,

Hi! A year has passed, and SAD for me to say, I haven't been able to keep in touch with as many as I would have wanted to. For now, suffice it to say that for my part and that of my family, we have coped with l999 and emerged with peaceful, joyful and hopeful aspirations, and profoundly wish the same for you and your loved ones.

I did cross the cyberspace barrier mid-year last year, but failed to master it totally, resulting in many unanswered messages the last three months; however, hope springs eternal, and the intense desire to communicate is there. I hope the next three months will bring me up a notch communicatively.

Today, I received a GEM from my sister Astrid Boza on "Life's Little Instructions" and wish to share it with you as a token of what many of us think and feel, but have failed to take the time to internalize and verbalize. With it comes my VERY BEST WISHES for a NEW YEAR replete with LOVE, CARE and JOY.

With many pleasant reminiscences past and warm hopes for myriad e-mail contact in near future, and ALL the BEST for you in the NEW YEAR, ALWAYS.......
An old priest was once asked what shocked him most about humankind and the reflection of his own life...

"That we get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again.

That we lose our health to make money and then lose it to restore our health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, we forget about the present, such that we have lived neither for the present nor the future.

That they live as if they will never die, and die as if they had never lived.
Then was asked what he felt the most important lessons of life were...
To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but who needs the least. To learn that you cannot make anyone love you. What you can do is let yourself be loved.
To learn that what is most valuable is not what you have but who you have.
To learn that it is detrimental to compare yourselves to others. All will be judged individually and on their own merit.

    To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and many years to heal them.

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness. To learn there are persons that love you dearly, but simply do not know how to express their emotions.

To learn that money can buy everything but happiness and your salvation.
To learn that two people can look at the same situation and see it totally differently.
To learn that a true friend is one who knows the intricacies of your faults and loves you anyway.

To learn that it is not always enough that you are forgiven by others, you must also forgive yourself.

People will forget what you said,
People will forget what you did,
People will never forget how you made them feel...


Ingrid S. Santamaria