The Year of the Dragon

Well it feels like I haven't written here in a while, probably since about last year...bad-dum-bang...ok, well that fell flat. Well happy new year dear friends and family! Its the year of the dragon this year in the chinese zodiac, and that is a big deal here. It is a year for great sucess and big changes. The chinese revere the dragon as a symbol of power and luck. There will be a lot of people doing things like having babies this year....At least in Asia haha. I was a dragon baby.

Anyway, this week and the new year passed without too much fanfare. This year new years finds me actually located right next to the capitol of Taipei, where they have a ginormous fireworks display from the tallest building in Taiwan, Taipei 101. Last year I was not near Taipei so I was hoping this year I could catch a peak. So we got home the night of the 31st and we trundled up to our roof to do some scouting. We live on the 3rd floor of what is called a 5 stack (this means a stack of 5 five apartments) and we are in an ideal area on the other side of the river from 101. But unfortunately the five stack was not tall enough of give us a view over other Goliath apartment complexes. So we did not get to see 101 go off. But we sure heard it. About 11:55 a cry went up as people started to calibrate and call out happy new year all across the taipei basin. Then as the new year arrived the fireworks went off so loud that even from where we were it was like being next to the roaring engine of a jet plane. We crowded around our little window and had to be satisfied with the reflections of color off of the neighboring buildings. It went on for a good 15 or 20 minutes it seemed.

There will be a lot of change in my life too this year. I can feel it creeping forward, slowly right now but it will be speeding up soon. I spent a good amount of time on Sunday pondering over what I wanted to make of this new year. Change is something that I have been well acquainted with for most of my life due to a transitional life style, but its always kind of a unsure thing. I have set a goal this year to gladly embrace all the change that is waiting for me, and press on with faith. And I know that everything else will just come according to the will of God, and as long as I am doing my part it will be according to my growth and or happiness. And that is all I can ask for.

Happy new year.

Sister Melissa Thiessen