Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times… Your ability to thrive depends, in the end, on your attitude to your life circumstances. Take everything in stride with grace, putting forth energy when it is needed, yet always staying calm inwardly.
-Ping Fu
2016 was a turbulent year. I moved back across an ocean. I had to say goodbye to some wonderful people. I had to readjust from a life in a bustling metropolitan area to life in a rural agricultural area. There was more than an ocean between me and the friends and family I had left behind, but I had to find a way to reconnect. I made new friends, which has always been a little difficult for me. I had surgery, was laid up for months, and found myself drowning in the same dark emotions I had fled from two years before. I floundered. I rallied. I floundered again. Like a small ship on a rough sea.
This sounds very negative. Did nothing good happen in 2016? It did. I am glad to be home with Anata and my puppies. I have a new job working for the local newspaper, which keeps me involved in the community and actually uses my degree. I picked up another new job writing English lessons for an online company. I get to read good books and think about them critically. But 2016 was also full of emotions that I am just now able to process.
And now it is 2017.
Study the teachings of the pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom. The pine is evergreen, firmly rooted, and venerable. The bamboo is strong, resilient, unbreakable. The plum blossom is hardy, fragrant, and elegant.
-Morihei Ueshiba
While many will celebrate 2017 as the year of the rooster (or the year of Betty White), I have decided celebrate it as the year of bamboo.
Did you know that bamboo, like rice, is not native to Japan? It was imported from China. But it didn’t take the Japanese long to integrate the bamboo into the very soul of their culture. With their trademark ingenuity, bamboo became indispensable. It was used for building, crafting, and every kind of utensil imaginable. It grew into a beautiful and symbolic staple in their literature, art, and culture.
Bamboo always thrilled me while I was in Japan. I loved to listen to the wind rustle through its leaves. To watch it bend further and further under snow and wind only to bounce back. Its green always reminded me of early summer, my favorite time of year. It was comforting. I took so many pictures of bamboo!
But it is more than the beauty of bamboo that made me choose it as my spirit plant for 2017. It was the strength and flexibility. I have always struggled with mental flexibility. I tend to get ruffled and stressed when plans are changed last minute. I had started to come to terms with this in Japan, but maybe not in the best way. I didn’t get flustered when people flaked out on plans, but I just did them on my own. I quit inviting people to do things and just tried to enjoy my solo adventures. It worked well, for the most part, but it didn’t really solve the flexibility issue.
And now that I have returned home to a spouse and responsibilities, just going on my own doesn’t really work. I also took two jobs that require a lot of flexibility. Sometimes have just a few hours to get an article done. So I decided to be more like bamboo. Bruce Lee said, “Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.” The bamboo can do this because it has strong roots, but a flexible stalk. I can’t control everything, there will be winds that blow me, snows that weigh me down, but I can sway with them as long as I have strong roots.
The seed of a bamboo tree is planted, fertilized, and watered.
Nothing happens for the first year.
There’s no sign of growth.
Not even a hint.
The same thing happens – or doesn’t happen – the second year.
And then the third year.
The tree is carefully watered and fertilized each year, but nothing shows. No growth. No anything.
For eight years it can continue. Eight years!
Then – after the eight years of fertilizing and watering have passed, with nothing to show for it – the bamboo tree suddenly sprouts and grows thirty feet in three months.
-Zig Ziglar
For over thirty years I have been building my root base. I have been spreading in different directions, collecting experiences, ideas, and knowledge. My roots weren’t always spread in the best soil, there were weak spots; there have been times I got to close to the surface and got burned or went too deep and drowned. But I continued to grow. Now, 2017 is my year to sprout. To pull all of those things together and push upward toward enlightenment. It is time to try and realize the potential that so many have seen and nurtured in me – Okasan and Otosan, Anata, teachers, mentors, friends, and family. They have watered and fertilized me with opportunities, adventures, and education. They have been patient while I spread my roots, trying this and that, never faltering in their care. 2017 will be the year they see their labors pay off. It will be my year.
あけましておめでとうございます! I wish you all a Happy New Year. I hope that 2017 is your year too. Good luck and 頑張って.
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