We always look at a leap year as the one with the extra day, the extra 24 hours we can use—or waste. To many, it is a window of opportunity, a day that promises difference, a day when extraordinary events can happen. We look at it as a porthole—as Harry and his colleagues of the wizarding world would say—that we can hold on to transform us to something new, something different, for at least one day.
If you’re a single unattached male or female, chances are friends would advice you to date or make the first move just to get things rolling. You feel bold, uninhibited, because you have the leap year as an alibi if you are ever criticized for your unusual openness. If you’re married without kids, some people will tell you to try your luck in conceiving one today. Who knows, the stars might connive to give you one lovely son or daughter, or twins…or more.
For the jobless and lazy, this is THE day to try their lucks in the lottery or horseracing, as if they haven’t been doing it every single day of their pathetic, worthless life. Or the casino, if they’re moneyed. Or the illegal gambling dens. (It’s a leap year, give us a break!) On the contrary, if you’re a businessman or entrepreneur, colleagues and superiors may advice you to be cautious and conservative in your deals today and not to sign any contracts in haste, lest your good fortune will magnetize the negative energies of the day.
You’re a bum? Get a job! You’re a geek? Get involved! Frustrated with your job? Get your boss to promote you! You’re a virgin? Get laid! You’re a workaholic? Get a life!
In whatever way, leap years are portrayed as the year that gives you extra – extra power, extra confidence, extra luck and extra charm to get what you desire. Maybe that is why the Olympics is scheduled every four years as well, and often coincides with leap years. It might give the athletes the extra “leap”, the extra strength, the extra boost, the extra booze.
But in reality, to most of us hardworking, mature individuals who are simply busy getting by everyday, the extra 24 hours of February is just like any other day. We start and end it just like any other day. We wake up in the usual time and do whatever we normally do on a day like that, such as eating, working, interacting with the world and sleeping at the end of the day. Apart from the hullabaloo created by psychics, numerologists, astrologists and feng shui experts, there is nothing different about February 29.
So what is all the fuss about the extra day? Why think of it as lucky or blessed or charmed? It’s not the day that pours in the extraordinary energy that turns the lives of some of us around. It’s us and our belief that fuel this day with extraordinary spirit, turning our own lives around.
The extra day does not make the leap year any better than the rest of the years of a decade or century. We do. If we live each day of our lives with great care and full attention, we accomplish more and become productive. If we cut the journey short by moving rapidly towards our dreams than succumbing to the endless delays brought by mistaken opportunities, we can get there faster and be able start a new journey to another dream. If we focus on the essentials of life and downplay the distractions of unrequited love, heartbreak, lost job, bypassed promotion, death of a loved one, vision of what could have been, failed experiment, sickness, unplanned pregnancy, ill will and vengeance, we can enjoy the meaning of life and be in the moment.
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