Happy New Year!
Or should I say, Gung hay fat choy!
Today marks Chinese New Year as we enter the Year of the Snake.
One of the most amazing aspects of a snake how it molts, or sheds its skin. Its dead cells come off in one glorious moment when the snake slithers out of old skin, revealing the new skin it has grown underneath. It’s an animal that represents ultimate self-renewal.
We humans shed our skin everywhere. Imperceptible, our dead skin cells slough off and disappear all the time, becoming the dust we we inhale over and over again. Unless we are fastideous about cleaning, we constantly breathe in our old cells. Our old selves. No wonder it sometimes feels like we can’t escape who we were.
The gradual and invisible nature of our shedding hides our renewal from both our eyes and those of others.
But we do renew.
Every few years, every single cell in our body is replaced. Our essential structure remains constant, but on a cellular level, we are babies starting fresh.
Wouldn’t it great to molt like a snake? To slough off a part of ourselves that we’ve out-grown in one, beautiful and unmistakable moment of rebirth?
Why not try?
It it is the Year of the Snake. If ever there was a time to slink out of our old skin, it is now.
Let’s leave behind the parts of ourselves that have already died and bring our fresh, pink skin into the new light of the new year.
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