Happy New Year Part 2

Welcome to the Year of the Ox, which starts today. Various celebrations will be taking place over the next couple of weeks in many branches, though if you were celebrating in the Scottish region over the weekend, you were more likely to be marking Burn's Night, so we hope you all had a good time!

The Year of the Ox is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity, which is especially needed in these times of financial hardship. Such tough times bring us tough choices when it comes to how we use any precious spare cash, and that may cause us to consider whether we should go to that next workshop, or even whether we should keep up our tai chi. This often comes up in discussions when people ask about the cost of workshops, or when they are asked to pay their membership, even if they haven't been to any classes for a couple of weeks.

The answers lie in how Master Moy challenged us to think about what was on offer. When someone once asked him why a workshop cost as much as it did, he asked the person how much they were prepared to pay for their health. The answer was, of course, that our health is priceless, and if we approach it with our Western 'value for money' mindset, then we will not get very far. Similarly, we are a membership organisation, so trying to equate what we pay with the 'amount' of tai chi we get will also fail. Our membership entitles us to as much or as little as we want, but it is also the way that members support the Society, so the principle is about being a member, and not about a money-based transaction.

Workshops are one way that we raise funds - but even so, when you compare what else you might get for the money, improving your health is a pretty good way of using your cash. And they're also such good fun! So if you have your eye on one of the workshops for this year, then you might want to start a workshop fund now to help you get there. We can all make choices about how we spend our money, and maybe if we put aside a little bit each week, instead of buying that extra pint of beer, or box of chocolates, it surprising how quickly it accumulates. It's all about our priorities.