The Twelve Animals

• Rat — Quick to see the opening, and already moving before anyone else decides.
• Ox — Slow to start, impossible to stop once the weight is on its back.
• Tiger — Moves first, asks permission never — the front of every room.
• Rabbit — Reads the room before it speaks, and lands soft every time.
• Dragon — Wants the whole sky, and usually finds a way to reach it.
• Snake — Watches everything, reveals little, and is right more often than it says.
• Horse — Needs an open road more than it needs a destination.
• Goat — Soft on purpose, in a world that mistakes softness for weakness.
• Monkey — Finds the clever way through when the straight way is blocked.
• Rooster — Says the true thing at the wrong time, on principle.
• Dog — Guards what it loves long after loving stops being convenient.
• Pig — Takes its pleasures plainly, and trusts easily because it means it.

The Eight · Learn