Happy Chinese New Year. Gung Hay Fat Choy! May prosperity be with you.
Today we leave the Year of the Rabbit enter the Year of the Dragon. The Western traditional New Year is past. The champagne is gone, the ball has dropped, and resolutions have been made and broken. I didn’t make resolutions this year. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I made any new year’s resolutions. Why spend one day a year reflecting on your life, dreams, and goals? Reflection should be on going. Goals should be made, and re-assessed, re-adjusted, and made again. We should take stock daily and be grateful what we have and strive toward our passions. Continue to work to do better each and every day.
Enter the Dragon. In the Chinese zodiac, the Dragon is the mightiest of the signs. They prefer to live by their own rules. They take risks and are unafraid of challenges. The Chinese Dragon is passionate and goes out to achieve. Dragon’s don’t wait for life to come to them; they go out and meet life head on.
That’s what I want 2012 to be for me. It’s time to take risks, put myself out there and see what happens. This isn’t easy for me. I’m a Rabbit, and reading about this sign hits pretty close to home. It is said that Rabbits are creative and seekers of knowledge. They symbolize compassion and sensitivity and hate conflict. They are cautious and careful and don’t like taking big risks. Their sensitive nature makes them shy away from aggressive or competitive situations and they sometimes lose out on opportunities because of it.
So how does a rabbit become a dragon? They don’t. I don’t really want to be a dragon. I’m happy being a rabbit. I love being creative and compassionate. What I want is to dress as a dragon on the weekends. I want to learn to take on the dragon personality, the risk taker, the mighty fire breather, when it’s necessary.
We all, at times, wish we could be more like someone else. But even dragons have a weakness. They have bad tempers and people sometimes think they are conceited. The point is that we all have our strengths and weaknesses. It’s time to stop focusing on everyone else. Let the rabbits be rabbits and the dragons be dragons. Focus on what we’re good at and know what we need to work on. Dress up as a dragon to learn, to improve on a weakness, but always stay true to who you are.
What’s your Chinese zodiac sign? What sign would you want to dress up as?
Ox here. Strong, loyal, brave if provoked, plodding and stubborn, doesn’t mind hard work but prefers working toward long-term, safe goals. Also, like the rabbit, not a risk-taker, doesn’t like change. Yeah, I’d say hits pretty close for me too, Heather.
Love, love ‘dressing up as a dragon on weekends!’ 🙂 I’ll join you in doing that. This post was sorely needed by me today. I was just wallowing in sulk after spending too much energy comparing myself to others.
I say it’s the year of the Rabbit and the Ox dressing up as the Dragon and kicking some butt!! 😀
Vaughn, my kindrid Ox spirit friend. I’m glad this post came at a time that you needed it. I needed it too! It’s so easy to get wrapped up in comparing ourselves to others. It’s a trap I easily fall into.
I agree that it is the year of the Rabbit and the Ox! I’ve got my dragon costume, lets breath some fire and kick some butt!!
This Sheep would love to join Weekend Dragon sessions. 🙂
I may breathe a little fire after the kids go to bed as well.
I’m amazed by the amount of self-doubt I find among amazing writers. Some people can blaze right through it. I would like to be one of those people. I let doubt circumvent my goals for many years. But I think I have an inner Dragon, as do both of you. Salut to 2012! 🙂
Here’s to the inner dragon! Self-doubt is a killer. We have to band together to keep it away. What would I do without my tribe? You guys are awesome.
Yay! You’re back! I had to go check out what I am, and I am a Pig. How funny is that! It was pretty darn accurate, too. I think you’re one-hundred percent right, we have to constantly be checking ourselves and our progress toward our goals. That way we can’t hit the end and wonder why we didn’t get where we wanted to go!
Lara, thank you! It’s good to be back. 🙂 It’s amazing how accurate they seem, isn’t it? You’re awesome at setting and acheiving goals. Write on, sister!