Calling All Rabbits
Is this our year or what?
Dear Hippity-Hoppity Beauty Hunters,
Happy Year of the Rabbit! If you were born, as I was, in 1963—it’s OUR YEAR.
I’m celebrating by going skiing with my ski spouse, Kristin. My swim pal, Mary-Jane, who is also a Rabbit born in 1987, is going to celebrate with a traditional Chinese feast with her family.
On Friday MJ and I were enjoying a social kick set at the end of workout.
“What does it mean to be a rabbit?” I asked. I was hoping for superlatives about how fierce and fabulous we were. Instead, MJ shrugged, and said she couldn’t remember, and the answer varies depending on where you go for your information.
🐇🐇🐇
Yesterday morning, after three days of relentless bragging to my husband and a few other friends about swimming 20 x 50m of butterfly this week—hey did you hear? I SWAM 20 x 50m OF BUTTERFLY!—I looked up the traits of people born during the year of the rabbit.
Before I show you the rabbit traits, a little more about this rabbit’s flagrant bragging. Steve was on the receiving end of 95% of it. This included a request—really a demand—that when he returned to swimming on the morning after my Big Swim (I was going skiing ), he make sure EVERYONE KNEW that I’d swum 20 x 50m butterfly, and was also the only one who finished the set doing 100% butterfly, no fins, no drill. I was insistent. I was unapologetic. I was the peacock of peacocks. And Steve was all in.
“I will probably never do this again, so I have to really get my money’s worth,” I reasoned. Steve gets me.
An aside: I am a big fan of a clean brag. As in: you do something that even you’re astounded by, and you share it with all. The clean brag is cool because it’s really a Look What We Did! Because what was Done was not the 20 x 50 m butterfly (although I did!), but something previously inconceivable, and the clean brag is a pronouncement of our human potential and the expansive nature of life.
So, after all this clean and dirty bragging (I was insufferable), I looked up the qualities of people born in the year of the rabbit. I read it to Steve, who laughed for a good 15 minutes (I joined him), then sent it to Mary-Jane:
You know what’s beautiful? Being able to laugh at your spouse laughing at your shortcomings, and agreeing. What freedom.
You know what else is great? Having a spouse who likes to re-listen to songs over and over until you rob them of all their power, beauty and meaning. Some years ago we listen/watched Pink performing White Rabbit. We still love it. Here you go—for the Year of the Rabbit.
And please, if you do something that is flat-out astounding, let someone know. And if you want to test-drive your bragging skills, tell me!