Last week, I was invited along for a pre-Chinese New Year lunch. Whilst waiting for our Thai version of Yee Sang (I’m still trying to figure out why we had Yee Sang at a Thai restaurant..)and with Chinese New Year just being days away, naturally the conversation veered to sharing this year’s dos and don’ts with regards to Feng Shui in the Year of the Dragon.
From one end of the table, a woman announced that she went home earlier that week and sieved through her coin box to ‘weed out’ any spare change she may have in Euro currency.
“Feng Shui master says you must keep all your Euro money either in your wallet, or in your drawers where people won’t be able to see it”, she explained while I quietly wondered if her Feng Shui master said anything about passing him the Euro instead to coincide with his Italian trip sometime this year.
I repeated this piece of story to another woman who attends the same yoga class with me on Sunday mornings. Far from being superstitious, I only did this as a conversational piece, something to bemuse over together as I try to understand this growing worldwide disdain over anything monetarily related to the European countries.
Our teacher overheard our conversation and what started out as a small piece of Sunday morning, pre-Sun salutation conversation became a full blown advice. One which I thought would be worthwhile sharing with the rest of the world.
“People would be much better off trusting themselves, and in God/Universe”, he declares, though more so in a gentle fatherly way rather than in a condescending way.
I am in no way shooting down all those Feng Shui masters out there, or any other type of career that bases itself on predicting the future. But just because I personally do not believe in it, does not mean the rest of the world should not. Like I am still wondering how babies born in the Year of the Dragon can be any better off than say babies who were born in the Year of the Ox (or Monkey, or Pig or the rest of the animals that appear in the Chinese calendar), but that does not mean there aren’t millions of hopeful parents and determined newly weds out there who will be making good use of their bedrooms (and everywhere else possible) this year to make sure that does happen.
My yoga teacher did have a very good point though. We are our worst critiques sometimes, and I do not know anyone who is not hard on themselves when it comes to personal and professional achievements. I have been guilty of this way too many times than I care to keep track of. I second-guess, triple-guess, quadruple-guess my decisions. I question over and over what the future may bring, and if I choose this today, will it bring me the things that I desire most tomorrow?
Faith. One simple word that demands a person to believe in something and/or someone without first seeing or having real, tangible proof in front of your eyes. Faith. One of those things that I am constantly finding and losing, and finding it again in places least expected. Faith is definitely one thing I believe the world can do with more. Because faith, leads to trust, and with trust, there is hope.
So nevermind if Nostradamus said that the world will end this year, nevermind if Euro is one currency you won’t want to be showing off to your house guests (if you really don’t know what to do with them, you can mail it to me for my trip in March!). Instead of worrying, let us all have a bit more faith in the goodness of strangers, in the people whom we love the most as well as the unknown future. I’ll end this post today with a Chinese New Year commercial advertisement filmed a little under 3 years ago, by one of the most talented film producer Malaysia has ever seen – the late Yasmin Ahmad who sadly passed away from stroke a few months after this was filmed in 2009.
To those who will be driving out of town this long weekend, stay safe and to those celebrating – Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Almost Hijau 