Water Ox

Lunar New Year fell on Feb 7. Anyone born before that date belongs to the previous year (Rat).

Ox people have a certain thickness to them: good news and bad news both have to sink in before they land. While everyone else changes plans three times a week, they can stay with one unglamorous task for five years without announcing it or asking for credit. First meetings read as flat, with few words and a laugh that arrives half a beat late, but once they say yes you never have to ask again. What stays hidden is the stubbornness. Silence is not agreement; it usually means the verdict is already written.

Ding is a lamp that refuses to go out, Chou the ox that walks slowly and does not turn back. The gully water meets earth and does not ram it, going around, and though the detour is long it still ends lower down. People like this hold firm opinions without force; they can wait and they can bend. Everyone assumes they gave up, then finds them arriving from another side. They seldom change their mind, though they will change the road that gets there.