Looking Back ...

Pros and cons.

Used to be quite keen on listing pros and cons (mentally, not literally) when recapitulating past experiences or making decisions.

Not so much anymore. I know it's widely recommended in various writings of the self-help genre, but I don't think it's either helpful or, well, right. Drawing from my own experience, I've come to the conclusion that this method is no good. Pros and cons have often come more or less equal in both number and strength with the result of confusing me even more and making any decision almost unthinkable. (to say nothing of the muddled state of my intuition). Or else, I've end up with a very strong advantange/s or disadvantage/s in one of the options, which renders the whole exercise useless. The truth is that a simple method as this can hardly encompass the complexity of important choices; in such situations you almost never know all the variables in the equation; hence you cannot easily assign a positive or negative value to all of them and come up with the correct answer. It can work with more straightforward cases, I guess.

Bottomline: won't take stock of 2008 by means of pros and cons.

In the last year I've come closer to the thinking that whatever happens, happens for a reason. Of course, I've known this for a long time. My mother broght me up to believe that there are no coincidences, that whatever you do, whether for the better or worse, finds its way back to you (or to your loved ones) sooner or later. The new thing this year (past year, already) is that judging from what happens around me, all these things are true. This does not necessarily mean that I enjoy everything and everyone in the same way or that I rejoice in succcess as much as in failure. What I mean is that I'm better convinced now than I was a year ago, that we do not live in a vacuuum, because everything we do in thought, word or deed is not left hanging in the air. It affects us as much (if not more) than the people we direct it at. Anger, love, hate, everything bounces back. It's the same with thoughts. Sometimes it happens that when I think continously about someone, I either meet them or get a call from them. Of course, it's easy to overdo this by seeking significance in any trivia or milking every second for more that it's worth. I think this is where a good intuition (sixth sense, higher power or whatever you may wish to call it) can step in and guide us.

At the end of the day, or rather the year, you cannot but be full of hope for the next one. Looking forward to 2009:)