It feels like it was just yesterday and we are entering another planetary age again. That phenomenon adds more pressure to me signaling that my time on earth is going shorter each time and there are a lot of things I want to do and to accomplish yet. But time is inevitable, it runs fast if you will let it be. 

I spent the first day of the year 2013 with my family and relatives. Of course, being with my family (my mom and dad, and my two younger brothers) is the highlight of this new age. 

It is our [maternal extended] family tradition to go to the beach every January 1 and Black Saturday. And since I was a child, I have always been going to this beach every New Year's Day and Black Saturday. I have a lot of memories printed in photos taken from filmed cameras from more than a decade ago up to the digital age now.

I didn't want to miss the chance of seeing the first sunset of this year, as I have always been doing and my extended family every year. It only happens once a year. 

Riding on a motorbike, I made sure to bring myself to the coast of my hometown Vigan. The city that is hard to leave and let go.

It's just so sad that the beach now compared when I was a kid is very different because of "black sand mining" that slowly but surely grabbing the coastline of my hometown. It somewhat hurts, because I love this place. I was born here, and currently working here (as of this post).

When I was a kid, I have to walk very far more from our beach tent before reaching the waters and before the waves, there used to be a natural mini-seawater lake on which we used to call as a 'swimming pool for kids."

The beautiful beach I used to see before is already gone. It is now just worthy of memory to cherish and that's what this beautiful sunset is showing to me -- that beauty may fade but the memories will stay. 

But then again, as the sun disappears, it means that there will be new tomorrow. Can you notice the moon? That means the night and the day are really united in one accord.

Like in life, there's nothing permanent, so do anything you can do now because you may not be able to do it tomorrow. And one of them is seeing the first sunset of the year on which I can never do it anymore should I have missed it. It is once in a life time. For 2013, I am looking forward of doing many things, as many as I can!