Dragons in the Streets

I've been gone for almost a week. Went to see my friends and family for a while. I stayed with my friend "C" in Isleton on the weekend, then drove to the Bay Area to see my grandchildren, my sister and my sons.

 This beautiful paper decoration in my friend's window and is part of her decorations for the Chinese New Year.

This year is the year of the snake. Chinese New Year traditionally runs from the last day of the month on the Chinese calendar and continues for fifteen days. The calendar is lunisolar so it's referred to as the "Lunar New Year.".Which means that there are lots of celebrations right now and in some of these celebrations DRAGONS are involved. Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize influential and favorable powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricane, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck.
So my friend invited me to join the community in a celebration of the new Isleton Museum and a little fun in the streets. To invite good fortune into her new home she has decorated the house. This was the centerpiece of her dining table.

There were flowers in each room and Chinese decorations everywhere.

Even her bulbs were blooming in the bright living room window.

By noon, the main street was filling up with people. The celebration was beginning.

First, a martial arts group entertained in the street with drums and dance.

The were called the Eastern Ways Martial Arts School out of Sacramento. Interesting to watch and very entertaining. Drums beat out the rhythm and cymbals accented the moves.
Then the next few hours were turned over to the DRAGONS.

Each business that wants to bring good luck into their store or home, ties a lettuce leaf in the doorway with a red envelope that has some money in it.  If the dragon comes to your store and eats this offering (symbolically), this will bring you and your family, your business and efforts prosperity and good luck for the New Year.

Then, they released the dragons.

I think that some of these dragons were youngsters because they seemed more interested in the children than finding little red envelopes.

But the "older" dragons were on a mission. This purple dragon saw me taking pictures, walked right up to me and said hello. I was laughing so hard that I'm surprised the photos are in focus at all.

Then (moving clockwise above) it moved onto the sidewalk, past me, lifted its head, grabbed the lettuce leaf and the red envelope (with human fingers from inside its mouth... honestly... do you see it?) and walked away.
He was a dragon on a mission.

And off he went to find another offering hanging in another doorway.

I crossed the street and stood in front of Pineapple, a wonderful restaurant were we ate the night before.
This time a red dragon arrived.

This dragon seems very powerful. It told the other dragons to move on down the street and they did. (top left, above.) This dragon also had a young man that walked with it and seemed to be a guard or protector (top right). Then it grabbed the red envelope with the lettuce leaf and two Mandarin oranges hanging in the doorway, turned and walked auspiciously down the street. This one was very "no nonsense" about it all. I felt that this one was a female. I'm not sure why.
The last one, toward the end of the street near my friend's house, was a black dragon. This one seems a bit confused about what he was suppose to be doing. He  didn't grab the lettuce leaf. He walked into the cafe and had to be led out backwards because, you see, he was very big and dragons have a hard time turning around in small spaces. The Levee Cafe is very small.

They finally got him out. I think he might have been a little embarrassed but he kept his composure. He took a moment to find his bearings and then he moved out into the street.

As he went past my friend's house, he hesitated and looked at the porch.
"C" later said that she wished she had hung a red envelope there for the dragons, because she wanted to have the house blessed and bring it good fortune for the new year. I told her that next year we would remember to do this. The only thing is... this dragon might try to go inside the house and Max, her little dog, would want to defend his domain. It might not be a pretty picture. Max can get quite an attitude about these things.
The dragons disappeared. The river town went back to normal and we had dinner that night in "C"s dining room, with a little reminder of the wonderful day.

Xin Nian Kuai Le， 新年快乐

(Happy New Year)

“So comes snow after fire, and even dragons ...” J.R.R. Tolkien (English Writer -The Lord of the Rings, 1892-1973)

"...perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us."

~Rainer Maria Rilke~ Austria-German lyric poet~ 1875-1926 ~ 

I had to drive down to South Sacramento yesterday. I had an appointment for an eye examination so I could order new glasses. This is one of the big issues in my life. I'm losing ground ,as I mature, and continue to need stronger glasses to see the things that bring me pleasure and to discover new points of view. 

After seeing the doctor and ordering glasses, I sat in the pharmacy waiting for a prescription I needed and watch the news at noon on a TV suspended over the waiting room . Someone in Placerville, who worked in an elementary school as a custodian, shot the principal and killed him. This happen during school hours and the screen was filled with the chaos of parents trying to get to their children and the news media trying to get information. Oh no, not another angry person... and another..... and another.

The man accused of killing the Principal was picked up at his home and arrested. No one seems to know what the motivation was for this killing. The police are not talking, so the media is focusing on the parents, teachers and the children who knew the two men and of course they are all speculating as to what happen.

I thought, as I waited for my medicine, that this seems to be happening more often... more the way that people deal with adversity in their lives now. Some people reacted with so much anger that they fought and argued with the actions of the police who were trying to keep some semblance of order and deal with the frightened parents who wanted answers.... and their children. 

 The news continued and folks were standing near the TV watching and talking to each other, shaking their head and walking away. My name came up on the board so I got in line, paid for my meds and left the hospital. I still had to drive over to Costco. 

I always have a list when I go to Costco. It keeps me from impulse buying. BUT.....Sometimes I just start looking around, especially in the book section, and then I see something that I can't live without. Impulse buying is usually not a good idea but yesterday I had a reason. The premise, this time, being that my oldest grandson has a birthday coming up next month and I need to start looking for presents.

I found two. One I can't tell you about because it has to be a surprise.

Now, the reason I'm telling you about the other one is because I'm in a dilemma about it. I love this book. The Bean would probably love it too..... but I think I really bought it for me.

It's called DRAGONOLOGY; The complete Book of Dragons. I don't get too goofy about books. I like some and I keep  the ones I fall in love with.... but this book is beautiful. To really enjoy this book you have to maintain a small part of you that believes dragons just might still exist. I think I do or I hope that somewhere at sometime, they did. But this book takes dragon dust to a whole new level.

You have to suspend your logic and  believe in spells, Merlin, Beowulf, the Origin of Species and Marco Polo .You have to become a child again and remember "not to discuss dragons with people who do not believe in them, or with those who merely seek to amuse themselves."  

This book is about DRAGONS.... 

Fierce, fire breathing dragons that fly and have shiny eyes ..., and are an endangered species.

This book is the encyclopedia of Dragons and opens with a small envelope that says...

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN written on it. When you open it up there is a letter inside from Dr. Ernest Drake of St. Leonard's Forest~ April 1904

He writes that he has written this book, "...not that you might seek out and destroy the few dragons that remain, but that you might learn about them and, indeed, help them to stay concealed. For the wise learn much, see much, know much, but disturb little." and he wishes to, "pass on this knowledge to someone worthy of its keeping." 

He tells you how to refute the skeptics and how to befriend a dragon if you have the amazing opportunity of finding one.

He even classifies the dragons by habitat and shows you where you might find them on this planet.

There is a chapter for Dragon Biology and Physiology...

and The Life Cycle of Dragons. I think I'm in love with this little newborn infant. Something about him reminds me of Carl, my corgi.

The illustrations are beautiful...

And he adds a record book, riddles & puzzles and how to fly with your new "pet".

But wait, I've saved the best for last....

A real sample of dragon dust. I had no idea. You can use it for spells and charms, like making yourself disappear. HOLY DRAGON DUST!  All you have to do is take four freshwater pearls, ground them into powder with a dragon horn or jade. Mix the powder in the grease of  a freshly killed , seven-day-old Koi ( that's a big goldfish) and massage it liberally all over the clothes and body repeating "She zheng wang dong. li pa!" Nothing to it. This will last four hours. Now tell me.... haven't you always wanted to just disappear for four hours at some point in your life? 

I need to find a Dragon. I need to market this dust. I would be a wealthy woman.

Maybe these Dragons are like the gold that the Prospector and I seek. Maybe Dragons really do exist but they are as elusive as the gold of the Mother Lode here in California. All I know is that I will be looking for these beautiful creatures for the rest of my life and I have decided that I may wait for a few years to share this knowledge with my grandsons. This is some heavy information and I want to choose the opportune time to share this with them. I want them to be young enough to have an open mind but old enough to not be afraid. 

Also, they need to be old enough to do some field work with me because I see lots of "Dragons" in this world, in other forms.I see many dragon  metaphors in our lives and in the vast territory of our minds we seem to create them as part of our life stories. I want to teach my grandsons how to see the difference between the real dragons in our lives and the dragons that fly invisibly over us and live in magical places. Children need this. It's where Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Sandman live and if it's in my lifetime we will find it together. 

We can't tame the men who choose to kill one another, but we can start with them as children and teach them about goodness, love and the magic of Dragons. It's all about dreams, hope and being brave and it's about the dust..... that beautiful, magical and shiny dust that humans came looking for here in the California Foothills  thinking that it would be the answer to their dreams. It's all about the limits of our imagination and how we can soar above it all  if we choose.

I think I will keep this book for a while longer. It has given me back something that I thought I had lost... the magic of my childhood and the the fire breathing dragon inside of me.