When Resolutions Fade

A Gentle Eastern Reminder for the New Year - 心流

Christmas and New Year have come and gone… quietly, like a snowflake alighting on the garden bed—gently landing, then dissolving into moisture, absorbed by the earth without a trace.

With a steaming cup of tea in hand, I sat in the 6:30 a.m. morning light and looked out the window. The ground was wet and dark, but it was only from an overnight Sydney storm.

There was no snow.

That was just my usual Christmas imagination at work—memory carrying me back to my hometown, Tianjin, a northern port city in China, where it snowed almost every year at this time. I miss that. ❄️

I light a stick of patchouli incense. The first curl of smoke rises, carrying the scent of old books and still forests, of roots moving slowly beneath the surface. My thoughts begin to drift— like dust settling in a long-forgotten room, coming to rest where it belongs. Time doesn’t exactly slow. It simply begins to breathe in rhythm with the smoke, in rhythm with me.

This New Year feels different. As the Snake, my clashing animal sign, gradually, yet inevitably sheds its skin, my heart feels placid amid the seasonal haste—intentional, quiet, yet strong-willed. And in that moment, I realized that in my relentless focus on creating a beautiful life, I had forgotten to actually live it.

Instead of writing down the usual New Year intentions—the kind tied to outcomes and achievements—for the first time in a long time, I let them dissolve into a poem penned by Max Ehrmann almost a century ago. I’ve included it at the very end, so you too might be held by its quiet, perennial magic. ✨

As the lingering aridity within me begins to soften, an answer to a long-held question starts to surface—one our culture often answers with noise & judgement instead of nuance. If the purpose of all this striving—this planning, building, expanding and accumulating—is not merely to arrive, then what is it truly for?

And if I may ask so bluntly - What is the ultimate point of making money?

To build a bigger house to be alone in?
To drive a luxury car to honk in traffic?
To feel safe or to show the world you’ve arrived?

While you sit quietly with this, let me tell you a little story—not of wealth or the paths to acquire it, but of a quiet moment that reordered the meaning of both.

A young man worked hard and saved. His first purchase wasn’t a car or a watch. He traveled to a distant village where an old craftsman practices a rare art: making pottery that breathes, using mud and plant liquids.

He paid far beyond “market price” to learn. The work was tedious—kneading mud, sensing its moisture, “listening” with his palms as the wheel turned. People laughed. “You paid all that for this?”

He said nothing.

Then one quiet afternoon, the clay in his hands seemed to awaken—rising into a form of breathtaking beauty he’d never imagined.

The old man smiled.
“The mud is awake.”

In that electric moment, he understood:
He didn’t pay for pottery lessons.
He paid for the awakening—for the thrill of touching an ancient soul.

That’s what money can unlock.
Not things.
Aliveness.

What is money?

It is energy made tangible—a token for your time, your focus, the unique signature of your very essence, offered to the world. Its true worth lies not in the material, but in what it activates: a journey, a connection, a dormant part of you waiting to awaken.

Money is a golden key—to open doors you could never otherwise enter, and to live a life you’d otherwise never know.

It is a bridge, not a trophy.
It is an invitation, not a destination.
It is the currency of possibility.

The real purpose of money is to exchange it for more advanced life experiences.

When you place money with intention, and it becomes living water—it flows, it nourishes, it brings life to your soul.

To reclaim the texture of a life that is truly yours, here are three ways to gently enter the quiet current where your essence and your energy align—especially in the 2026 Year of the Horse—what in Chinese we call 心流 (xīn liú), meaning, the ‘heart flow’.

🪶 First, Buy back your attention.

In an age of endless distraction, the ultimate luxury is not a possession, but depth, deep focus. Invest in a craft that demands your full presence, a deep focus: the silent arithmetic of calligraphy, the deliberate ritual of tea, the patient dialogue with clay..

Purchase silence—a retreat where the signal fades, so you can gather the scattered fragments of your soul.

In this total deep focus,
Time dissolves.
The Self dissolves.
What remains is a quiet, luminous joy—a state of flow.

🪶 Second: Invest in proximity to ‘high-frequency people’.

When you meet someone or a community whose very presence feels like illumination—their thoughts, their state of being, light something within you.

Do not admire from afar.

Move toward their light.
Invest in their work.
Secure their time.
Enter their orbit.

This is not an expense; it’s an energy investment. Your payment is a gesture of respect, and their elevated energy will reflect into your life.

Approach the light, and you become the light.

🪶 Third: Purchase a breakthrough in your consciousness.

Deliberately break your own patterns.

If you’re extremely logical, you may want to take an acting class. If you’re analytical, buy art you don’t “understand” but feel.

It’s not about the outcome—but in the rupture—the sacred pause it creates into your thinking. It opens a slender window in the wall of all you know, allowing a strange and necessary wind to sweep through.

Send your money as your messenger—to places you cannot yet go, to people who elevate you, to realities you have not dared to imagine.

Then, let these collected luminous moments - become pearls, strung into the necklace of your one wild life.

You will find that what you have accumulated is no longer mere wealth, but a rich, expansive, and regretless existence..

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

— Max Ehrmann, 1927