The Year of the Tiger begins, Clearings done, New beginnings, Commit to your goals

The Year of the Tiger began with rituals of clearings and wonderfully inspired clanging and banging of pan lids with silverware.  Saturday night, just before climbing onto the futon Pete and I sat quietly with small sheets of turquoise colored post-it paper.  Our tiny vardo home/oasis bedroom newly cleaned, the time just before sleep was our time to commit to our private and collective goals/dreams for the coming Year of the Tiger.  A small and precious china bowl painted with violets, a piece of my long ago and treasured history sat empty except for the Citrine crystal that has traveled with us for a decade.  Silently we wrote words and images we see happening in our new lunar year.  When the sheets of turquoise were filled, we folded them words facing in (like eggs ready for fertilization) and placed them in the violet bowl along with the crystal.  "So it is.  Mahalo Ke Akua."  Our ritual of commitment complete, we ended with that simple prayer ending.