“With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow – I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.” Confucius

Before we began our Asian tandem bicycle adventure, I read Confucian quotes and often couldn’t relate.  This I chalked up to lack of depth on my part, and perhaps the enigmatic (to us) nature of Eastern thought.

Muddling my way through jet lag on our return, and as one friend opined, postpartum depression at the end of another adventure, I pondered the above Confucianism anew, and discovered I suddenly understood. Oh, I had known the surface meaning, from earlier adventures involving discomfort, danger, but not the full depth of his thought. I suddenly noticed that he says, “…have still joy…”  not “…still have joy…” as I had first read it. His meaning was hidden from me until I had eaten enough coarse rice, drank enough wood smoke infused water and slept sufficient times with my bended arm for a pillow.

To have a still joy, a quiet joy, a joy devoid of external condition, of riches or renown, is to have a profound joy, a lasting joy. I will look back on the past four months for as many years as I have left. I will remember the struggles, the discomforts, the challenge of the unknown, even the moments of  near panic, and I will smile. Confucius traveled China, seeking knowledge, seeking deep understanding. And Claire and I did also.

On this blog we have shared the light moments as well as the challenges and discomforts. I hope in coming months, as we integrate the lessons learned and share them, that you will be enriched through our seeking. And then I hope some of you will open a new path for learning, and seek out the adventure that fits your nature and capabilities. We all have the desire to continue to grow, to explore the previously unknown, no matter our age or condition in life. To suppress that desire is to suffer loss.

Here’s to your adventurous 2010, and beyond.

Happy New Year

Lucky takes a think break on a mountain wildflower pillow

I had another of those funny think things. “Respect yourself and others will respect you.” I asked Claire what that word respect means. She took a long time with her thinks before she said something. “Respect means you think well of someone, and that you trust what they say is what they will do.”  That sounds good. I thinked there might be more.  She heard my think, “Respect takes a long time to happen, she said. ” My head hurt, but I wanted to hear more. “To respect yourself, means to be honest so you know you are a good person, or uh, panda.” I had a think that I want to be a good panda. “If you act right, so you can respect yourself, then other people, and pandas, will see that and respect you.”  That was a long think, and I’ll think on it more. I like this think.

I think these thinks are coming from someone else. I’m not that smart by myself. It’s probably not a panda. We just think about bamboo. I wonder if it is a China person? Does anybody know who thinked these thinks first?

Tea in Turkey with the girls who turn silkworm casings on hot days. This day was 40C.

Another think came to me. This one is long. I think I like it. When I told it to Bob and Claire, they looked at each other, smiled and hugged a little hug. I think they know about wheresoever and go and heart too.

I like the picture Bob came up with to go with my new think. He said it was from a place called Turkey, and Claire said the girls were fun, even if she couldn’t understand anything but the laughter.

I still wonder where these thinks come from. Does anybody out there know?

My head fluff is acting up again. I’m doing more of the think thing. I kind of like this one, since I’ve been seeing really pretty country lately. But I know I didn’t think this by myself. Somebody really smart thought this first. Bob and Claire think I’m a smart panda, but I think I think these thinks are coming from another place. I wonder where?

Lucky's First Thoughts

I must have bumped my head pretty hard when ended up in the middle of the road, before Bob and Claire rescued me.  My head has been feeling funny, not hurting, just funny. Well, after that last fast bicycle ride, the words up above just popped into my fluff filled head.

I told Bob, and his face went white. He said it was scary that a stuffed panda was doing something he called, thinking.

After little bit, he said he had an idea what the words meant: That a person (or panda?) should really do stuff, rather than hear about it or see it. He said it is the reason they travel, and hike and bicycle, instead of watch other people do stuff on television. I think I remember such a thing called a television from my other life. The people were always sitting quietly in front of it They might have been doing this thinking thing, but I couldn’t tell.

I think I like moving better than sitting, but I like doing this new thing they call thinking too.

Does anyone know where my thought came from?