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Here is a fictional and whimsical "Interview with God" passed on to us by Dr. Nene Juliano, the widow of Dr. Serafin Juliano who was the chairman of the UDMC when Hubby was a member of the board.

We saw each other at the annual Christmas dinner tendered by Dr. Eki and Edita Enatsu, owners of the United Doctors Medical Center and it’s sister school, the Southeast Asian College, Inc. Hubby served as vice-chair of both institutions until he passed away. It was a two positions he thoroughly enjoyed as he liked the people in UDMC and SACI.

The author of the article is anonymous and some of you may have gotten this from your email already but for those who have not yet read this, I share it with you this New Year’s Eve. It was really written for the new millennium but its time for a new year and which hopefully will be a better, more peaceful and blessed year than the last one!

The year that will fade away at midnight tonight was life-changing for me and my children but it brought so many blessings and graces too!

LET ME GREET ALL OF YOU A BLESSED, PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

"Come in", God said to me. "So you would like to interview me?"

"If you have time," I replied.

He smiled through his beard and said, "My time is called eternity and is enough to do everything. What question do you have in mind to ask me?"

"None that are new to you. What’s the one thing that surprises you most about mankind?"

He answered:

"That they are bored of being children, are in rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. They lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they are neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never died and die as if they never lived."

His hands took mine and we were silent. After a long period I said "May I ask you another question As a Father what would you like your children to do this coming new year?"

"To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved.

To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives but who they have in their lives.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. There will always be others better or more than they are.

To learn that they should control their attitudes otherwise their attitudes will control them.

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

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.

To learn that there are persons we love them dearly, but simply do not know how to show their feelings.

To learn that money can buy everything but happiness.

To learn that while at times the may be entitled to be upset, that does not give them the right to upset those around them.

To learn that great dreams do not require great wings but a landing gear to achieve.

To learn that true friends are scarce but he who finds one finds a treasure.

To learn that it is not enough that they be forgiven by others but that they forgive themselves too.

To learn that they shall reap what they plant; if they plant gossip, they will harvest intrigues. If they plant love they will harvest happiness.