A Happy New Year word: "Beautiful"

My word of life for 2013 is "Beautiful."

(The Chinese calligraphy is the work of my late father, Romano K.)
   We enter a New Year celebrating the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Family is our ideal. Family can be good. Family can be beautiful. I choose to live with these ideals rather than succumb to pessimism in the New Year. And that choice, too, is not easy! Surely God has plans for all of us. If we belong to solid, loving families, we should be grateful. Perhaps not every one of us came out the way our parents intended. Even Mary and Joseph had to experience the pain that is common to so many parents.What they teach us is that we must have the wisdom to let go and let our love keep each other in prayer. If our families are a bit off the wall and dysfunctional, God can perform miracles. God also works in all family situations as He did with Mary and Joseph in their earlier beginnings. 
   I remember Daddy visiting me in a very distant part of the Midwest. He said to me: "Ronaldo, these people here are beautiful!" I replied: "Daddy, I live with these people.They are not all that beautiful!" "One day, you will see, son!" He was right. 25 years later, I see. With the right set of eyes, we can all see the beautiful!
   In the New Year 2013 of many expectations, may we truly see the Beautiful around us by becoming examples of "respect, justice, dialogue and love." Jesus, Mary, Joseph bless our families with "beauty to see the good."

"May we secure the precious gift of peace, break down the walls which divide, strengthen the bonds of mutual love, grow in understanding, and pardon those who have done wrong; in this way, by God's power and inspiration all the peoples of the earth will experience fraternity, and the peace for which they long will ever flourish and reign among them."  [beautiful words of Benedict XVI on Jan. 1st.]