If the Year of the Tiger (2010) had you by the tail, you’re in for a reprieve during the Year of the Rabbit.  We’re being thrown a carrot, one that could make us feel complacent, and even inspire a tendency towards self-indulgence, which might be what gave us such a troubling time last year.  

While our pareidolia (patternicity) is of a man in the moon, the Chinese have a long history of seeing an image of a rabbit using a mortar and pestle to pound herbs for the Immortals.  The positive side of a carefree and indifferent Rabbit makes for a peaceful year. The Great Hare has divine aspects in many cultures and is not a warrior.  The Rabbit could bring a year of happiness and contentment.

The Rabbit, and those signs compatible with it, will experience success. For others, the Rabbit year will require quick-footed flexibility to dart the shrewdness and bolt from the tricksy.

Rabbits have a reputation for vigorous copulation and prolific reproduction. Their breeding season lasts nine months. Gestation is only 30 days, making it possible for a single female to have 800 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in only one season. Rabbits are associated with springtime, fertility and playful sexuality.

The back-to-school season starts early in our mountain community. The classroom acts as an incubation chamber for all kinds of invasions. You may not have kids but you’re standing in line next to people who do. Some supplies you purchase for the classroom; other supplies you purchase to get you to the classroom.

When our daughter was younger, we always put her on Cold Snap for several days before she went back to school. That way she began the school year as strong as she could be. This strategy worked well until the teenage years when she became smarter than her parents. Sixteen was also the first year she was out with an illness at the beginning of the school year. Needless to say at seventeen, her parents once again became smart (in some ways).  As a college student, she saw Cold Snap as a valuable and indispensable study aid particularly when traveling abroad. Now as a teacher, she has joined one of our largest market segments staying one step ahead of the learning curve.