A day before the new year started, I had the weirdest, and the only memorable dream.

There she was, perched atop my headboard, staring at me while I was in between the dreaming and the waking world. I instantly recognized her face. The pale white skin, the darker than black, unkempt hair, the blackest of lipstick on her sweet little lips, the Ankh lazily hanging from around her neck, she could have only been one person that I remember seeing on graphic novels.

Death was watching over me, and she was indeed a righteous babe. I asked her simply if I am dead, but before she can answer, I realized, I didn't care if I was. I knew my family will be taken cared of, by my family or my wife's. So I changed my question, asking if it is even worth waking up to the new year. She stared back at me and smiled. All she said was, "What do you think?"

"I don't know. Financial freedom? Good health? World Peace?"

"What for? I'll still be collecting you sooner or later, anyway," she said with a joyful smile. "It's not like you can do something about it."

Then I started thinking of who I'm going to leave behind. Then it dawned on me why I needed to wake up and do something. It's true I can't do anything about me dying. It's a cycle, no matter how vicious it is. But it's what I do in between birth and death that counts. At least, that's how the cliche goes.

"I would like to see how it all goes down until you come for me. Or what you will let me be witness of."

All she did was smile back at me, up there on the headboard where she perched. And I knew then that I should be waking up, that if I ever was down, I'd be back up again, and more appreciative of it. And that if there ever was a problem, I know I'll find a way to overcome it. And that if there's a problem bigger than me, there's always someone I can depend on to get through it. But what really excited me in waking up is the slew of new technologies about to dawn on this coming new year. And it was enough. The haze is gone. I am awake. Back to the grind.

Happy New Year.