Jade DragonBytes

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This dragon recently flew over to frigid northeastern China to visit the Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival. Didn’t enjoy the chilly Siberian winds but the amazing art made it well worth the journey! (Even a cold-blooded creature like me gets cold when icicles start forming on my scales!)

This festival,  one of the world’s four largest ice and snow festivals, includes humongous ice buildings built from the frozen waters of the Songhua River, gigantic snow sculptures, and ice slides. (Kind of an icy version of Burning Man at night!)

I loved the multi-colored night lights that illuminated the sculptures from both inside and outside. Really cool to see the brilliant and dazzling lights against the dark night sky.

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On a rainy day in San Diego, this dragon blew into the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park on free museum day. (There was actually a tornado watch going on outside! I love to fly in a storm but tornados really tear up my wings!)

Inside I found an amazing exhibit called Sonabai, Another Way of Seeing. For a decade and a half, Sonabai Rajawar only contact was with her husband and child! In response to this isolation, she created an entirely new artistic expression of color, light, and fun.

How amazing that she had no instruction or guidance, but was able to create such joyous art! Years later, quite by chance, the Indian art world discovered her and later gave her India’s highest honor, the prestigious President’s Award.

Sonabai’s story clearly expresses the capacity of human beings (including dragons) everywhere to meet their challenges head on and to draw from within themselves the strength and insight to change their lives.  Sonabai found ways to transform her oppression into expressions of courage, beauty, and joy in living. What an inspiration!

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Way cool! This dragon recently flew over to see the new exhibit “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, DC. How rad is it to come face to face with Emperor Qin Shihuang’s life-sized eternal army. (I last saw these when my pal the emperor was just getting started on this massive project.)

I met the dear emperor in my younger days (around 250 B.C.), as he was starting to plan for his afterlife.

You see death was perceived as a prolongation of life, and an emperor’s mausoleum was his afterlife palace, mirroring the magnificence of his palatial life on earth. As an old Chinese saying instructs, “treat death as life.”

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This dragon has often envied the ability of my distant chameleon cousins to camouflage themselves. (Check out this amazing cousin in camo… If I’m extra good in this life, perhaps I’ll come back with that camo skill in my next life. This could a really useful skill for a big dragon!)

Speaking of camouflage, while surfing the net today I discovered an amazing Chinese Da Vinci named Liu Bolin. Some call him the “Invisible Man” and for a really good reason! (Yes, dragons do surf the net, despite our difficulties in using a mouse.)

This very talented dude’s photos have people painted to appear to be invisible or disappearing. It’s his way of showing how he feels Chinese citizens are being treated by the Chinese government.

“It is not so much the body that is concealed in the environment,” says the Invisible Man, “as the surrounding world that swallows up human beings, without giving them any option.” What a cool and a unique way to make a political statement!

See if you can find the invisible people in following pictures! Kudos to the artist and the patient people in these pictures!

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This dragon thinks it’s really cool how Asian culture has co-mingled so much into every day mainstream life in America, the current lair of the dragon, where people love us dragons…

Today in America, many of us practice yoga and meditation for stress management. (In fact, most fitness centers now carry yoga classes.) Martial arts and Tai Chi have also become popular activities for many.

In the area of alternative medicine, more and more of us are turning to Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda and Oriental therapies for health and well-being, and most people have heard of Deepak Chopra, the “poet-prophet of alternative medicine.” (This dragon turns to acupuncture when its scales get too scaly or its flames start to sputter, especially since many health insurance companies now cover acupuncture!)

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Wow! This dragon tried out some of the suggestions in the Feng Shui: Myth of Truth article and got some amazing results! As a growing dragon that eats a lot, I needed more income so I could buy more food. (Eating cows from farm pastures has been frowned upon and the farmers have taken to shooting at me when I even fly near their farm.) So I tried putting red under my business phone. In my case, I put it in the back of my cell phone case since I roam a lot and only have one phone. (I’m also partial to red since it reminds me of fire and truly complements my jade “dragonness “.)

Prior to doing that I was having a bad run on luck, tying up lots of money in losing stock trades. The day after placing the red under my phone the stock market picked up steam. In fact yesterday the Dow went over 10,000 for the first time in a long time. That’s one powerful piece of red paper! And I’ve been meeting my goal to make 20 cows per week in the stock market ever since I added the red to my phone.

I loaned a horse statue to my friend who has been trying to sell his house for over half a year. Unfortunately I told him placing his horse in his travel position would either sell his house or help him travel soon. Since then he’s going on one trip and two more fell into his lap without any effort! (He may yet sell his house but at least will be going to three fun places while he’s waiting!) Since he’s kind of broke, I also gave him a desert rose succulent to put near his front door. (Another dragon had placed one near the front of the cave after hearing that plants with purple rounded leaves would bring prosperity when placed at the front door.) My friend repotted the plant and placed it outside the door just the day before the stock market went over 10,000! (He also dabbles in the stock market!)

Stay tuned as to what else comes about with the addition of this plant…

Try out the red paper or potted plant and let me know how it goes!