I had an entirely different direction for this week’s article, which included my usual yearly retrospective.

Frankly, after the Taal Volcano unrest, I’m not in the mood. Our family has not stopped monitoring the news, and the devastation of agricultural products (including over 3,500 metric tons of coffee in Batangas – arguably where some of our country’s best coffee comes from), displaced communities, and even the deaths of countless animals are absolutely crushing.

So, instead of a detailed, blow-by-blow account of what happened last year, I decided to take a more sedate route and, well… use this entry to proverbially count my blessings. This is partly because I find that one of the best deals to deal with sadness is to maintain an attitude of thankfulness, which I find easier to do if I mentally list down things I’m be grateful for.