By the Chinese Zodiac, we are now well into the new year!

With a new month, comes new trials. We have just said goodbye to the 29th of February, and now will not see it for another four years. This year is the Chinese Year of the Rat, and with that comes the expectation of not only new beginnings, but also hard work and the hardships coming from that. It is expected to be all these things, because by the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Rat begins a 12 year cycle.

I know a lot of people who have already come into hardship so far this year. Troubles over love, depression, and health problems, such as my mother.

As I turned 24 last year, I'm someone who's born in the Year of the Pig. One of the stories behind the Chinese Zodiac says that the pig was the slowest animal to swim to the other side of a fast flowing lake, under the command of the Jade Emperor, thus why it comes at the end of the 12 year cycle.

Hopefully from here, we will see less hardships, and more new beginnings that bear fruitful results!

Nikki Watson
http://nikkiwatson.blogspot.com/