2014: A Soft Wood Year

The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.

~ Japanese proverb

Soft Wood

Soft Wood energy is represented by the evergreen, a tree that lives long and prospers and shows its true color all year and for its century old life. As the seasons change from Spring to Summer and Fall to Winter, Soft Wood trees continue to grow tall and strong and ever green. They thrive and maintain their healthy, youthful appearance while Hard Wood (deciduous trees) change their colors with the seasons; transforming from spring blossom to summer fruit and then fallen leaves to bare-naked branches. Soft Wood energy symbolizes eternal youth, vibrant health and longevity. Its greatest presence on the Earth is an immense forest of centenary evergreens found at the top of the world in the Arctic Circle.

I couldn't live where there were no trees; something vital in me would starve.

~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

Balanced Soft Wood energy is patient and poised, clear thinking and open minded. It’s capable of leadership and is highly intelligent. Composed and self-assured, it’s flexible and able to thrive under intense pressure, weathering whatever life brings its way. It has an ability to learn anything, to grow any business, effortlessly attracting the right team of people to build wealth while providing quality products and/or services. It may inspire a hunger for knowledge and information and make you feel more devoted to your home, family and friends. Imbalanced Soft Wood energy can be demanding and fault finding, contrary and arrogant, judgmental and opportunistic, impatient and always on edge, addicted to doing and prone to depression.

A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.

~ Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

Soft Wood embodies the Law of Least Resistance. It knows that resistance is self-destructive and surrenders instead to whatever the wind brings its way. It’s efficient in collecting, storing and utilizing available resources of sunlight, water, nutrients. It effortlessly receives what it needs from the earth without competing for the rays of the sun, draining the life sustaining water supply or depleting the mineral rich soil. It never takes more than it needs. Soft Wood, like its name, can be a little soft. It’s yielding and lenient. It’s resilient, leaning into life and quickly and easily springing back from life’s little setbacks. Soft Wood sways in the wind. It bends, but never breaks with the winds of change and the waters of prosperity.

When the winds of change blow, some people build walls, others build windmills.

~ Chinese Proverb

Soft Wood is known in Feng Shui as the “persistent wind”. We will see much wind, swirling up and whirling around, sweeping across and spiraling down, signaling artificially altered weather patterns like we saw in the Polar Vortex. This wind is impatient, tireless and contrary. The whipping gusts and driving gales, ceaselessly moving to and fro, may bring some strange, extreme and intense weather, even a super storm of sorts.

May you find your thinking spot on the blustery days and call on beloved friends to wish them a merry “Windsday”. May gentle breezes bring glad tidings and swift currents happy days. May air streams cascade into windfalls and fragrant zephyrs draw your attention to the sweet presence of angels among you. 

May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back.

~ Irish blessing

Meander through life as the wind flows, like a river through the sky, above it all and yet caressing every surface and edge, each curve and corner. Let life in, like the breath that brings life affirming energy into your heart, where you can touch your soul, where you can feel your consciousness expand. Let life change you, uplift you and sweep you away; in a flurry of opportunity, let the wind beneath your wings take you high and let you soar to a world of new experiences, new perspectives and new possibilities. Model your meditation after the wind, ever flowing, always free. Let your life be a moving meditation, a dance of intentional thoughts to a song of mantras and to the rhythm of the steady beat of your heart. Let the easy inspiration of your breath carry you along the surface of the great deep, creating stillness of mind, quietness of spirit and expansion of consciousness.

Soft Wood is a Yin element. Yin energy is gentle, receptive, passive and feminine. You may enjoy a more yin yoga practice instead of power Vinyasa and slow leisurely walks instead of cross fit routines this year. It will be such an active year that you may want to balance the fast moving, intense and relentless energy with a more gentle approach to yoga poses, practice a more artistic form of martial arts like Aikido, Tai Chi or Qigong and make an exercise program that is slow and steady instead of fast and erratic. Pace yourself. Be more aware of the journey.  Be less rigidly scheduled and less focused on duties, deadlines and destinations.

Soft Wood is an East House element. East House elements experience life in a linear manner. They are very conscious of the past and the future and where they are now on that timeline. They live with the future in mind and take time to reflect on where they’ve been.

Get out of the house.  Leave the office. Embrace nature. Take your work outside. Even if you have to be “plugged in”, every modern day device is mobile, cordless and wireless.  Be present. Don’t “live for now” (2014 Superb Owl XLVIII half time show sponsor, Pepsi’s motto)…live in the now. Don’t “do what you want” (Lady Gaga)…do what you will be happy to have done. Don’t do what you are told…do what you love.

Soft Wood is an emotional element. You may become more aware of your emotional states of being and connect more with the emotional aspects of yourself, others and life as a human being. Your emotions may become the predominate theme of your life this year. You may seek out emotional connections with family, friends, and especially lovers.  In fact, the way you relate with people may be to make connections with them on an emotional level.  You may feel the need to emote and be with other people who are able and willing to engage with you emotionally. You may be in for a ride on a roller coaster of emotions, expressing your emotions, reading books about feelings or emotional health and having an increased desire to feel a wide variety and degrees of emotions. Let emotions be your guide. Emotions are unique to being human.  Let them color your world.

Soft Wood’s completion number is 4.  4 is the number represented by a team of people, a dynamic group that works well for professionals and academics, scientists and research and developers. Soft Wood energy works best on a team of equals, each contributing something of value to the project or vision, each pulling their own weight. They are all experts in their chosen field and none of them are in competition with each other. This works when each member of the team is recognized for a level of mastery in their skill set, when their contribution is valued and appreciated and when no other member can or wants to play that role for them or better than them. The members of the team take turns as Team Captain and each member gets a chance to take the ball and run with it. They work side by side, individually and yet in unison.

If you learn to set a good sail, the wind that blows will always take you to the dreams you want, the income you want, and the treasures of mind, purse, and soul you want.

~ Jim Rohn

Soft Wood energy excels in all forms of business. Entrepreneurs and small business owners will have a very good year. It’s also a good year to start a business, celebrate a grand opening or hang out your newly painted shingle. Success is on your side and large profits are easily raked in. The “wood on top of fire” energy is expected to bring prosperity to Water (shipping, transport, boats, yachts, cruise liners, communications, drinks, water sports, water parks and spas) and advancements to Metal (hi tech, banking, machinery, computer technology, cars, and engineering) industries. It may also be an active year for Wood (textiles, clothing, fashion, magazines, paper production, book publishing, news media and environmental) industries although any movement will be conservative and marked by innovation and enthusiastic but measured progress. Fire (energy, finance, and the restaurant and entertainment) industries may perform less well due to overwhelming competition in the market place. Earth (real estate, property, hotels, mining, home construction and insurance) industries may see a steady decline in business and sales which can be staved off with properly placed Feng Shui remedies and enhancements. Enjoy a prosperous year! 

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

~ Mark Twain

Soft Wood years bring opportunities for travel to the great cities and beautiful places of the Earth. Go and explore your world. Travel with your lover or friend, with your children or family, with a group or alone. Break out of your comfort zone; burst the bubble you are living in and get out there! Even though you might be glad to return home after your trip, you won’t regret your travels as they will produce a change in you that no other experience can. Travel will broaden your perspective, cause you to appreciate other ways of being in the world, and help you to realize how small a life you have been living.    

We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

~ Paulo Coelho

Soft Wood energy brings the potential to fall in love this year. Peach Blossom, the flower of romance sits squarely in the center of each home, building and heart of every man, woman and child. Love and be loved; just remember to love the one you are with. You will be tempted to cheat, start an affair to remember, be more sexually expressive and adventurous and engage in casual hook ups. Avoid love triangles by shoring up your current relationship with expressions of appreciation, thoughtful gifts, words of endearment, displays of affection, love notes, and random acts of kindness. Singles can expect to meet their soulmate, take a lover, make a friend with benefits or at the very least find a bump buddy. Some may even connect with their Twin Flame, currently present on Earth or residing across the veil.

The first step to a prosperity consciousness is to take responsibility for your thoughts, words, and deeds.

~ Marilyn Jenett

Soft Wood’s Life Center is Wealth & Prosperity. Expect a windfall, an unanticipated gift, unexpected checks in the mail, an unforeseen inheritance, a surprisingly large refund check, or other ‘out of the blue’ monetary boons. Finances may be inconsistent, improved finances may get easily spent and you may be tempted to over spend whether you have money or have to borrow money. This is the year to “feel free to prosper”! (Marilyn Jenett) Prosperity is yours by Divine right. It’s your responsibility to be prosperous, to be abundant and to create passive streams of income so that you can free up your time and devote your energy in service to humanity, sharing your gifts and talents with the world.

Be mindful of your self-talk.  It’s a conversation with the Universe.

~ David James Lees

Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it, and I mean almost immediately. There is really no better time to become masterful at monitoring your thoughts and being mindful of your words. The sub-conscious hears everything you think and say and takes it literally. If you are complaining about something or expressing frustration with someone, your subconscious thinks you are talking about yourself. Whatever you think about and ask for will show up whether you want it to or not. Nip negative self-talk in the bud by replacing it with a simple life affirming mantra or even a single positive word. Create new neural pathways by intentionally and constantly thinking a new dominant thought.

Prosperity Bowl

There is a traditional Feng Shui prosperity enhancement practiced in China called a Money Luck or Personal Cosmic Savings Account. They place a bowl made of one of the five elements of a certain color in a directional gua of their home or business according to the year of their birth. Every day they deposit a few coins from their pockets or purse left over from their purchases that day. This intentional practice of making frequent deposits into a “savings account” sends a message to the Universe that not only do you have savings, but that you have more than enough. Order your Personal Prosperity Bowl Report.

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy or unfulfilled. For it is only is such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

~ M. Scott Peck

Kan Yu

In conclusion, I would like to remind you of the origins of Feng Shui. In the beginning, this earth science and metaphysical art form was known as, “Kan Yu”. When translated, Kan Yu means, “Look up and observe the heavens, look around and observe the earth.” In essence, “As above, so below.” or “As within, so without.”

If there is one thing to take away from this report, one thing to remember, one thing to practice this year, it is this:  Look up and see with real eyes. Then, go within and know. It’s all about asking the right questions. The answers will rise to the surface and make their way to the shore of your consciousness like a message in a bottle. You already know the answers. Live inside the questions that matter.

I am lost in God and God is found in me.

~ Rumi

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