Quiet Beginnings Until Chinese New Year January 20 2023, 0 Comments
A lot of pressure is put on January first in our culture to start the new year* strong. Full of intentions and resolutions after the holiday’s excesses and busyness, we resolve to do everything healthier – mind, body, spirit-wise. I have found in the dark weeks after the holidays – even though the days are technically getting lighter – most of January is a natural time of cocooning. Sleeping more, sitting more, reading, dreaming, often in a gray daze. My whole body slows. Rather than fight it, for those weeks I eat the stews and bread and the last of the Christmas cookies. I get out and walk in the wind and rain. I do slow yoga. But for the most part, I am in my cave, slowly waking from hibernation, the hangover of the things of the past year that I want to shed and seeking glimmers of hopes for the year to come.
This is why the Lunar New Year of Asian cultures better fits my mindset and natural rhythms. Cleaning house after the holidays to welcome a new year in late January or early February suits me to a T.
This New Moon is closer than any other since 993 years ago!
This year’s Lunar New Year begins with the New Moon in January on the 22nd. As it turns out, it is significant by being closer to Earth than any other New Moon in since the dark ages 1030 A.D. Wow! Learn more here.
I’ve been making my lists, planning some trips, reconcieving projects and test driving a few new habits this week ready to begin again.
Sunday, New Moon, Perigee, Welcome Year of the Rabbit, here we go!
*New Year as in our commonly used Gregorian Calendar. I’ll dive into calendars and how we measure time in an upcoming post.