Year of the Snake

Year of the snake!  That's what I say aloud to most everything: the fiscal crisis, my pal Wendser's new career choice, another friend's move from the Pacific Northwest to the non-Pacific Southwest, the plumbing problem with my bathtub.

I say it more like a validation of the challenges and changes we are all picking our way through, but also to provide a more visual, creative, even spiritual way of thinking through problems, one that is more self-aware than something like "why does this shit always happen to me?"  (Why does this victim mentality seem so familiar?  Hmmm.).

I held a snake, a boa, when I visited Jamaica.  The boa was beautiful, very Bob Marley, an every-little-thing-gonna-be-alright kind of snake.  Bob was heavy around my neck, a smooth muscle, very focused and Zen.  He stretched his head toward his keeper with a kind of strength my core will never know, and his body followed. He wished himself to the place he wanted to go like a leap of faith.

I've thought about change and rebirth in the way Bob Marley the Boa might think of shedding skin, in the way of growth and making himself new.

Ancient Chinese wisdom says the serpent is feminine, represents wisdom.  Year of the Serpent is a  time of seeking, planning, and change.

I've thought about the serpent's strong connection with the earth, the graceful way she moves.  She's focused on a destination, but moves circuitously, sometimes laterally or curls her way past obstacles with immense flexibility, and what seems to be an elegant belief system like faith that  every little thing gonna be alright.