A VALENTINE BLESSING

Anam Cara* Valentine Blessing 

May the light of your soul guide you. 
May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth in your heart. 
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul. 
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work. 
May your work never weary you. 
May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration, and excitement. 
May you be present in what you do. 
May you never become lost in the bland absences. 
May the day never burden. 
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises. 
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled. 
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected. 
May your soul calm, console, and renew you. 

- John O'Donohue 

DREAMING OF SPRING

"Midwinter spring is its own season

Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,

Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.

Whem the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,

The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,

In windless cold that is the heart's heat,

Reflecting in a watery mirror

A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.

And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,

Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire

In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing

The soul's sap quivers. There is no earth smell

Or smell of living thing. This is the spring time

But not in time's covenant. Now the hedgerow

Is blanched for an hour with transitory blossom

Of snow, a bloom more sudden

Than that of summer, neither budding nor fading,

Not in the scheme of generation.

Where is the summer, the unimaginable

Zero summer?"

-T.S. Eliot

YEAR OF THE RABBIT

Tom and I spent the weekend in Las Vegas. Everywhere we went there were fabulously elaborate decorations of dragons and lanterns in celebration of the Chinese New Year (which falls on February 3rd this year) Oh, and rabbits! 2011 is the 'Year of the Rabbit'. I was so intrigued, when I got home last night I decided to do a little research to see what the Chinese New Year is all about.

It seems that the Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-year cycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!