At last, at last — the Guimao year has only a few days left before it’s truly gone.
I know this too: for most of you, the Guimao year wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Nearly everyone went through their own trials, big or small — their own share of hardships.
So as the new spring approaches, it’s only natural that the mood isn’t exactly electric.
But this year has to be seen through — there’s no getting around it.
Especially when things haven’t gone your way, that’s precisely when you need to face the new year with ease and grace.
Because this matters more than you might think.
Many of you haven’t quite grasped what the Spring Festival is, at its core — it is an extraordinarily important turning point. It carries the power of a true “page turn.”
So the harder the year has been, the more urgently you need to let go of the past year’s problems and regrets early on. Never leave loose ends trailing behind you, and absolutely do not let those problems boil over during the Spring Festival period.
If you do, the bad fortune you’re trying to leave behind will find its way back — still smoldering, still connected by invisible threads.
This is exactly why, if you look around, the regions where traditional culture is most fully preserved tend to be the ones where Spring Festival is taken most seriously — the lanterns lit with the most care, the joy celebrated with the most vigor.
For no other reason than those four words: bid farewell to the old, welcome the new.
Sit with the weight of those words.
Now — and I want to be clear about this — taking the Spring Festival seriously does not mean eating and drinking recklessly, throwing money around without a care.
It means using this time to come home. Curl up in a warm, familiar bed and let yourself rest and recover. Reconnect with your loved ones in an easy, unhurried way — let them feel that you care. And in the quieter moments, when the world isn’t likely to interrupt, sit with your own thoughts and figure out what you want for the year ahead.
Rest. Warmth. Direction.
That’s what the Spring Festival is for.
As for everything that came before?
Keep the lessons. Everything else — the negative emotions, the regrets, all that weight — let it go. Don’t revisit it. Don’t dwell on it.
In a word: our lives deserve a clean, liberated turning of the page.
As for me personally, I’ll be easing into rest mode as well. After a full year of battles on all fronts — cultivating both pen and practice — I’ve neglected too much time with my family.
That said, my Chinese zodiac (生肖) breakdowns for the Jiachen year, along with articles that move me enough to write, will continue — just at a more relaxed pace, as the spirit moves me. I hope you’ll understand.
One more thing — I’d love to hear from all of you in the comments: how do you celebrate the Spring Festival?
If you have a fun or meaningful way of spending it, please don’t be shy — share it. Receiving a like from each of you, accumulating a little karmic merit (福报) together, is a beautiful thing in its own right.