Happy New Year 2017
There is an African proverb that states, ‘When the music changes, so does the dance.’
This is a good metaphor for the ever-changing cycle of seasons, time and energy known as wu xing or five phases. In nature as in life, every moment brings fresh energy to living things, replacing what is old and tired with billions of rejuvenating cells.
2016 has been a tumultuous Yang Fire year – at once both illuminating and harsh for so many among us. Yang Fire is the element that burns so brightly it exhausts the very oxygen necessary to survive, extinguishing itself in the process since it cannot be sustained.
Yet in wu xing, Fire’s ashes are the nutrients scorched Earth needs to fertilize arid ground. Wood seedlings, nourished by winter’s Water emerge again in springtime and grow to fuel summer’s Fire.
And the seasons once again come full circle.
My wish for you this New Year’s Eve is a peaceful and reflective transition to 2017 knowing that as the music changes, we’ll adapt to the dance.
Happy New Year and let’s meet again in the year of the Yin Fire Rooster….
Diane Gallin
The shores of the lake slope broadly outward, and rise in the distance towards the mountain peaks. The end of the year is drawing near; and if it brought causes for grief, let that time be ending too.
Roger Fenwick