Gong xi fa cai

It's the Chinese New Year! Gong xi fa cai (gong-hay-fat-choy)!

This is the year of the rabbit *

… a placid year, very much welcomed and needed after the ferocious year of the Tiger. We should go off to some quiet spot to lick our wounds and get some rest after all the battles of the previous year.

Good taste and refinement will shine on everything and people will acknowledge that persuasion is better than force. A congenial time in which diplomacy, international relations and politics will be given a front seat again. We will act with discretion and make reasonable concessions without too much difficulty.

~ www.theholidayspot.com

 

We aren't sure we need to hide away to lick our wounds, but it's true that we want to be introspective this year – figure out what we need versus what we want, make our passion into our path, and live a more integrated life.

And if good taste and refinement are part of the package, that's great! We could use a bit of an upgrade in the external part of that. Perhaps a new hairstyle, new makeup colors, and a few more nice outfits (and fewer days in jeans or sweats). Perhaps it means a few more outings to the museum and theater (and fewer nights in front of the television). Perhaps it means more beautiful, fresh meals that taste as good as they look (and no more fast food, or chain restaurants, or meals we just throw together without care).

We'd like to go through the year with that same sense of wonder and joy that we feel when we see a rabbit in the yard, too.

Here's to a great new year! (And if you need a second start on your new year's resolutions, why not start again today?)