The Year of the Tiger

Apparently yesterday - 4th February - was a very auspicious day. Although the chinese/lunar new year does not begin until the 14th, yesterday was the solar new year which basically means it was the first day of The Year of the Tiger. The Golden Tiger. This is all new to me, until yesterday I was completely ignorant about such things. Today, I'm still largely in the dark but I did learn some interesting things at yesterday's Feng Shui presentation which was run by Jill Lander, a Brit who arrived in HK with her husband 32 years ago for a 2 year stint and never left. She raised a family and then followed her heart and against all the odds (being a western, blonde woman) she trained with a feng shui master in Asia and now has her own business here as a feng shui consultant. Quite a story, and I find that in itself quite fascinating. Moving to a new country can be so very daunting and so foreign, so unsettling and yet many people are able to break through that or even use it to follow their heart and start something completely new. I did it in Canada. I trained to be a yoga teacher, something that had never even crossed my mind in the UK. I'd done a few yoga classes but I wasn't hooked by any stretch of the imagination at that point in my life. It took a new beginning and a fresh start in place where I had yet to build an identity, for me to realise that this was something that I really wanted to do. I can't help but wonder if I will have time to find a new part of myself here in Hong Kong - but I digress...!

So, we have begun the Year of the Tiger. A challenging year awaits us but that does not mean it will be bad year - challenge can be a good thing too and of course, ultimately life is what we make of it. It will be a year of creation - that I like the sound of. A lack of compassion possibly too - that didn't feel so good but with all the uncertainty in the world right now, I can see how that might occur. Being compassionate is much easier when we feel good and secure...less so when the odds are against us and times are challenging.

Of course I am only touching the tip of iceberg here, I have much to learn about all things feng shui but I do intend to use the energy of the Tiger - his patience, his focus and his determination to make 2010 a successful year!