Fire Rabbit

Lunar New Year fell on Feb 2. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Tiger).

Rabbits are good at standing slightly outside the frame and watching the room. They notice who has lost their voice and whose laugh is being pushed out, and they file it away without saying so. They speak with a margin, decline by the side door, and cannot bring themselves to embarrass anyone. First impressions say gentle and easy. The hidden part is how selective that gentleness is. Good manners are not the absence of judgment, and once a line is crossed they leave so cleanly that it takes you a moment to notice.

Ding is the small flame on a wick, steady but swaying at any draft; Mao is the rabbit in the grass with ears up, reading the smallest movement. Such people make little noise yet are always present, catching the change in a face before anyone speaks. They tend a task like a lamp, trimming and refilling, checking it again. Being called away halfway through is worse for them than a slow week. They would rather sit with one small thing than announce it.