Category: words

The Year of the Snake

                                               

Happy Chinese New Year! According to the Chinese lunar calendar, 2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake. Sometimes referred to as the Spring Festival, this 16-day celebration originated 3,500 years ago in ancient China and is one of the most important holidays in Chinese culture as it marks the end of winter and the beginning of the new year.

In Chinese mythology, the snake symbolizes wisdom, initiation, charm and slyness. It’s often linked to the element of fire which represents passion and transformation. The Wood Snake specifically is seductive and creative, as well as absolutely ruthless.

When it comes to literature and mythology, the snake is one of the most symbolically significant animals. And while you may associate it with evil, snake symbolism is much more far-reaching.

For centuries, it has been a symbol of rebirth, renewal and eternity, largely because of its ability to shed its own skin.  In many cultures, snakes have been associated with darkness and the underworld, probably because they spend so much time hiding under rocks or in pits below the earth. In the Bible’s Book of Genesis it’s a serpent or snake (symbolizing Satan) that speaks to Eve and tempts her to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

In other cases, however, snakes have been associated with more positive symbolism, particularly when it comes to healing properties and medicine. The staff of Asclepius with a serpent wrapped around it originally symbolized the Greek god of healing. Today, we associate it with pharmacies and medicine, a throwback to the theme of renewal and rejuvenation.

Snakes appear in many works of fiction too. One of the most famous is Kaa, the Indian python from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. When I watched the movie as a child, I thought Kaa was the villain. Kipling, however, didn’t write the story that way. In the original book, scary Kaa rescues Mowgli, the boy-hero, by defeating the monkeys and freeing the child. The snake in that story represents both savior and danger, underscoring once again the ambiguous symbolism of both savior and danger.

I’m not sure if that holds any significance as we head into the Year of the Wood Snake. But if the events of last week are any indication, perhaps it means that we can expect both good and bad over the coming year . . . and with wisdom and patience we’ll find the courage to move forward and leave the bad behind us. Eventually shedding the old and embracing the new just like the snake sheds its skin and renews itself.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year

                                 

The Christmas lights are put away, the extra treats have all been consumed (in rather alarming quantities this year) and my 2025-day book is open and ready to be marked up. Yes, I still like a physical planner, in spite of the fact that I also keep track of deadlines and appointments on my phone.

A number of my friends choose a word of the year. Doing this encourages them to think carefully about what they want to focus on over the coming months and how to bring their values into alignment with that goal. I’ve never done it but I thought it might be fun. Instead of coming up with my own word, however, I decided to toss it out to the universe.  So, I found this on line:   http://wordoftheyear.me/

 I clicked …and laughed. The word I got? Invest. I don’t have the means or the knowledge to invest. I also have (what some would call) an alarming lack of interest in anything deeply financial. I’m not talking about the daily necessities of paying bills, tracking expenses, balancing accounts. I do that with ease. But the investment side of life, how financial markets work, that kind of thing, leaves me cold. In fact, just this morning, and before I chose my word, I was reading an article on politics and I came across a new-to-me phrase ‘the financialization of housing in Canada.’ I had no idea what it meant and had to look it up.

So, the word invest didn’t resonate. At least not at first. But then I thought about the multiple ways I could invest. Virtually every single one of them involved that most precious of commodities: time. I could invest time in myself (my health, my self-care). In others (family, friends, colleagues). In various art forms (writing being one). In my garden (doing my small bit to care for the Earth). And I could also find the time to invest in joy (laughing and savoring the simple things in life).

Hmm.

Maybe there is something to choosing a word of the year. I’m thinking carefully now about how I will invest my time and energy this year. And I’m reminding myself that there’s more to life, to people, to words, than the first thing that pops to mind.

Happy New Year!

Words Matter

                                              

This week is Words Matter Week, a time devoted to the celebration of words.  Started six years ago by the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors, the goal is to promote opportunities for (and bring awareness to) people who make a living with their words. And I can certainly get behind that!

This year, however, I’m thinking about the importance of words generally, not only written ones, and I owe it to my neighbor.

For the last few years, she has hosted foreign high school students during the school term. This year, she has two students living with her – a student from Spain and a student from Japan. Japan and Spain happen to top the list of places we’d like to visit in the not-too-distant future, and when I mentioned that to my neighbor, she suggested we meet the two young women to talk about their home countries. So, we got together.

Prior to visiting, we brushed up on our Spanish and also practiced saying ‘hello, it’s nice to meet you’ in Japanese (Konnichiwa, hajimemashite). We took smallish maps of Spain and Japan with us so the girls would have a visual to point out their hometowns, and also because we thought it might help prompt conversation about other areas of their respective countries.

The Spanish student was chatty and outgoing, and given that she’d been in Canada for six months, she had a good grasp of English. The fact that we could communicate even a little in rudimentary (and terribly rusty) Spanish also helped. The Japanese student, on the other hand, was reserved and shy. She had arrived in Canada a few weeks earlier and was only beginning her English immersion program. We know almost no Japanese, so we communicated as best we could with gestures and Google translate, but it wasn’t easy. And because the Spanish student was more extraverted by nature and more fluent in English, she tended to dominate the conversation.

Until I said one word that changed everything.

We were talking about food. We’d already discussed Spanish tapas, paella and pan cot tomate, as well as a number of other Spanish regional dishes. Turning to the Japanese student, I mentioned how much I loved Japanese food. She nodded politely. But then I said I’d made dashi the week before.

“Dashi?” she asked.

“Dashi,” I repeated.

Her face brightened. She grinned and leaned forward, visibly wanting to be part of the conversation, whereas only minutes before she had, quite literally, been on the edge of it.

“With kombu and katsuobushi,” I added. “And then we strained it, added shiro miso and used it as a broth to poach our fish and cook our soba.”

Her whole demeanor changed; her grin grew wider. Suddenly, we were speaking her language. She held up a finger, scrambled to her feet and raced from the room. Seconds later, she was back carrying single serving packages of Japanese snack foods which she pressed into our hands. “For you,” she said shyly, sitting down again.

After that, the proverbial ice was broken. Sure, we were still dealing with a fairly significant language barrier but it felt easier somehow. We had forged a link, all because of a single word.

Words do matter.  They help us connect with, learn from, and care for others. And last week, in a very small way, we were reminded of just how powerful that can be.

Happy Words Matter Week.