A new year, new plans, new purposes, new challenges, new illusions… it is almost inevitable to think about how you would like the new year to be or what you would like to do. A review of the year ended, what went well and what went wrong, what we have to improve and where we have to put more effort.
And I think it is important that we seriously review and make resolutions regarding our family: spouse, children, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles…the calls and visits we have made, the ones we have missed. Whether we have played with our children and included them in our lives or given priority to our work, rest and hobbies. It is necessary to check if our spouse has been the center of our life, if we have given ourselves body and soul, being generous and making our love grow.
It is worth reviewing whether our parents have been a burden and the attention we have given them has been mere compromise or even treated them with contempt or for our own benefit.
At the end of the day, to dedicate a serene and sincere time to think about whether we have sacrificed our self in order to give generously or whether we ourselves have been the goal and center of our life.
Family is not something accidental, nor is it something to be coped with. Our family can be the source of all our happiness because even if objectively it does not make us happy, our generous dedication will bring us happiness.
How many times we are capable of making enormous sacrifices of time or money to help NGOs, foundations, parishes, the needy, friends…but we are unable to give that time to our grandparents, siblings, parents…or we do it reluctantly. True charity begins at home, it begins in silence, in what does not shine, in what is hidden. If not, it is not charity, it is egocentrism.
Go visit your aunts and uncles, call your siblings, listen with interest and affection to your parents, do a puzzle with your child. Start the year with a resolution to make others happy, starting with your own and then move on to others. Do not change the order because then everything will end up messy and only at home you are irreplaceable.