The Chinese New Year arrived late this year, and fell on our Valentines Day, February 14th 2010. Year of the Metal Tiger, this day heralds, “For all affairs, great good luck!”

I have a long connection to Chinese culture (from early exposure to the iChing to building a company in Shanghai in the 1990s), and have been anticipating the turn of this year and the putting aside of last year, which has been so difficult for so many folks around the world.

In juxtaposition, yesterday I heard an old Paul Simon song (American Tune, © 1973) quite by accident, a blues song that seems relevant for the current times:

And I don’t know a soul that’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
For we’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re travelling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong.

Even in a blues year, the turning of the new year signifies the putting aside of what has come before, and the looking forward with an optimism to the coming changes.

Traditionally, any New Year’s Day (January or otherwise) celebrates the coming of Spring, even if the ground is covered in snow, because we have passed the Winter equinox on December 21st (the shortest day) and are looking forward to the increasing light and easier living in the coming season.

Preparing for Valentine’s Day, I got to thinking about the cyclical coming of Spring. A native Bostonian once told me that after mid-February, you couldn’t trust the ice in Boston for skating. Another person explained that the increased sunlight re-activated certain hormones in all creatures (us included) that incited us to mating (hence, Valentine’s Day and the Spring re-birth of animals). In semi-tropical California, the Spring flowers arrive in February.

So, in harmony with the Chinese, I have put on a red ribbon to remember the turning to the new, and I am excited about the changes coming to meet us in the re-birth of the year.

The red ribbon is a wish for all of you who follow these meanderings ~
For all affairs, great good luck!

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