“This New Year, do not live in the past for it may make you depressed; do not live for the future for it shall only make you anxious. Live only in the present, for that alone will bring you peace.” ~ Unknown
You know, it’s not a bad idea to have a second opportunity to start the year anew. Refresh those goals and forgive yourself for ditching your resolutions. Besides marking the beginning of Lent (which seems like a much better time to apply most of our New Year’s resolutions anyway), this week also included the beginning of Ramadan for Muslims and the celebration of the first new moon of the lunar calendar in China. For many of us, familiarity with the lunar calendar and accompanying “Chinese zodiac” is limited to those paper placemats at Chinese restaurants, where we looked up our birth year to figure out which of 12 animals we were represented by and the accompanying characteristics.
Every animal sign is also attributed one of the five elements — water, fire, earth, air or metal — depending on the year that the sign occurs. I don’t remember the elements being included on those placemats, just the animals.
According to personality psychology, none of this is scientifically valid. However, because of the intrinsic power of self-fulfilling prophecies (what we tell ourselves about ourselves), absorbing those descriptions can impact on how we perceive ourselves and the world around us.
Besides the personal application, there’s the application of the animal and elemental attributes to the year itself. So in this vein, we’ve just exited the year of the Wood Snake and entered the year of the Fire Horse for the first time in 60 years. What was happening 60 years ago? Escalation of the Vietnam War, Star Trek premiered on NBC, the Ford Bronco was introduced to the American public, the miniskirt became famous in fashion, and Ralph Nader testified before Congress about unsafe vehicles for the first time.
There’s no telling what to expect from this Fire Horse year, so I’m sticking with the preceding quote about living in the present. That’s always good advice.
