Red Envelopes
I’ve been thinking about personal connections and gratitude lately.
What got me thinking was something that happened recently. I opened a rather standard looking brown padded envelope that came in the mail the other day. The return address was overseas — China — and I was not expecting any shipments so I thought the parcel might contain some product samples, just another invitation to buy something.
But instead, to my surprise, I found only a red envelope containing a hand made Christmas card from a company I had purchased some gemstones from earlier in the year. Several real photos of the staff at work and with their families had been glued inside, and the bow on the front had obviously also been hand tied.
The Meaning of Red in China
I should back up and explain the significance of a red envelope in Chinese culture in order for you to understand why this simple gesture made a deep impact and caused me to reflect on all the things I have to be grateful for as a new year starts, especially personal connections.
The color red in Asia is considered to be the color of prosperity. In Feng Shui, the front door is often painted red in order to ‘attract’ wealth and prosperity inside to the occupants of the home.
This tradition is also further observed by the giving of red envelopes at auspicious times of the year. These envelopes are called “Hong Bao”, and to receive one means that the giver has a sincere and personal wish for your prosperity in the coming year.
I few years ago, I wouldn’t have known about this underlying unspoken meaning in such a simple action, and there have been others that I failed to understand the significance of till later.
When we first started buying from stone cutting companies in China many years back, another Chinese company also sent us something at the New Year. It was a piece of pale jade carved into a dragon medallion, and attached to a red tassel. It had a hook for hanging up and so my husband put it in his car on the rear view mirror. At the time, I thought this jade-tassel was a nice example of their stone-carving skills and simply didn’t perceive the attached meaning.
The Meaning of Jade
In China, Jade is traditionally a protective stone. People wear it, or keep it nearby to protect them from injury. If you get into an accident, and the jade you were wearing is broken, it is supposed to mean that you would have been seriously injured, but were protected by the jade. Even today, if someone in China hears that you have been in a fender bender, for instance, one of the first questions they will ask is “Did the jade break?”
It’s taken me all these years, and several years of Mandarin speaking lessons to really “get” that precious gesture from a stranger a world away in the gift of a piece of jade. Even though it happened years ago, the fresh realization has caused me both joy, and a bit of regret that I didn’t fully appreciate that personal message and missed that opportunity to make a better connection with the sender.
Passing the Red Envelope
So why am I telling you all this? Because I’d like to give you a “Hong Bao” of my own, a personal and sincere wish for your own prosperity to make 2012 the best coming year of your life and give you one great tool to help you make it happen.
If you want to make sure this coming year is one filled with not only monetary prosperity, but also made much richer by deeper personal connections, but don’t know where to start, will you allow me to add this one truly great book to your reading list?
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
(No, this isn’t an affiliate link!)
Though “7 Habits” has been in print many years, this is still one of the best personal development books out there and is the book I am currently reading on the advice of someone I deeply respect and admire. Some of the things I am learning right now include:
- how to move your life out of crisis mode,
- how to develop better, more satisfying relationships,
- discover your own personal mission in life,
- and how to make a personal roadmap that will lead you to your personal best
What could be better than that?
In the end, life isn’t about things. We all instinctively know that things, even really nice things, don’t actually make us happy– real, genuine personal connections do.
Happy New Year!
Wishing YOU the Best 2012!