Only the Marvelous: And we'll take a cup of kindness yet for Auld Lang Syne

The whole place was dressed to the nines...and we were dancing...

Gold Sequin Sweetheart Cut Strapless Dress with High Slit: Style Staple | Gladiator 7-inch Gold Studded Peeptoe Studded Strappy Platform Heels: DAS | Metallic Gold 2.55 Chain Bag: Chanel | Gold Diamond Jewelry: Ords Jewelers | Rhinestone Filled Crystal Dress Watch: Anne Klein | Belt: Iconoclasts Line by JL and Domz | Solid Gold Cuffs: Miladay

...And on New Year's Eve... we sparkle. This has been an unwritten rule in my JL's Book of Style because every New Year's Eve I can recall was that of me wearing sequined,sparkling, shiny and metallic. I decided to sparkle and shine my way through the holiday like a gold shiny Oscar statue (luckily, I had the Midas touch) as I bid farewell to an amazing 2013 and welcomed a glittery and definitely sparkly 2014. It was the perfect night to go all out and I did, in this one of a kind sequined with sheer mesh details dress which I got from Style Staple, which had an extreme slit that I ended up tearing even more (as if it was not already high enough) as I partied the night away. For the accessories, I kept everything minimal with yellow diamonds: the dress was accessory enough! It was tradition and a mandate and as proof here are my previous New Year's Eve Looks for your perusal:

Some people, perhaps those more jaded than I am (and I thought I had reached rock bottom... the worst of the worst) would argue that there is not beauty or wonder left in the world. If this is true, then how can anyone possibly explain the joy and the love, the feeling of being reunited with your loved ones during the holiday season? How do you explain people celebrating the hope of a new year? The thing a year ending and a new year entering makes us realize that the opportunity of life is precious and it moves very quickly. I look back and find myself writing a New Year's entry yet again. How fast time flies!

This makes me realize that: THIS IS IT! The life that is ours is the one we are living today. There is no other. The more we try to hold on to our illusions of what we think it is or what we think it should be, the less time and energy we have to LIVE IT. I cannot recount how many times I have heard people who worked hard and longed for the time that retirement would come, only to die just before or after they retired? How fast it all went. How fast it all goes by. Our lives are so precious and the new year makes us realize that. Each moment has the possibility of a new discovery. And when it passes, that moment never returns. This 2014, may we all realize that it is only when we are aware of and to the best of our ability to living in the present will we have the opportunity to do what we want to do in our lives and not just pass through it.

On belief: Nathalie Sarraute once said that, "Neither reproaches nor encouragements will be able to revive a faith that is waning." But that is the faith that a new year restores in all of us. You see, faith, in the last analysis, is a personal process. One of the problems that we, being people of the world, face in accessing our spiritual self is all the things we have been told that we should "believe." We have tried to swallow beliefs from outside. Rarely, have we taken the time and the effort to go inside and start with our own awareness and understanding God and let ourselves trust our own knowing. I've been reflecting upon this the past few days leading up to new year and I realize that in our busy lives, it is always easier to reject than "wait with" our knowing. It is of course, always easier to move on than it is to "be with." Knowing who I am, I always give myself a hard time, which is probably why I prefer to wait. No one else can give us answers on our faith and our spirituality... we can read and ponder and think it out but this will not provide solutions... not even the new year. What a New Year gives us is a chance to know that our spirituality is experiential, and it is intimately connected with who we are. Trust me, it is time to "wait with" our knowing... the end result is simply magical.

And with that, the New Year makes us remember is something 365 days of stress, deadlines and drama make us forget: that each of us have magical moments in our lives when we become aware of the oneness of all things. When that happens, which happens every time the clock strikes 12 midnight, we see the motions and patterns and connections. A feeling of warmth permeates our being and we heave a sigh of heartfelt relief. We can know the unknowable. Actually, we realize, we have always known the unknowable. This moment of clarity is strongest when the year has just begun and it begins to fade away when the rigorous details of daily life weigh us down. Then we forget the magic... until the promise of another year looms in.

Don't let another 365 days pass to remind you what you should never forget...

xx, JL

Photos of our lovely degusation dinner
The Manuel Roxas Room, Tivoli Restaurant
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Makati
(The set-up was divine)
I did not eat but I did get my share of Pol Roger's champagne...by the bottle.