Beauty often is ephemeral

The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty wrote Yoshida Kenkō, a 14th-century Japanese Buddhist monk.

The sakura, or cherry blossom. The trees are famously fleeting. They bloom for only a week or two, and then the petals are gone. Other flowers — plum blossoms — last longer. Why go to such great lengths to cultivate something as fragile as the cherry blossom?

Because beauty lies in its own vanishing. Life is ephemeral. Everything we know and love will one day cease to exist, ourselves included. That is life’s one certainty. The cherry blossom is lovely not despite its transience but because of it. This has always been the case. 

The pandemic has driven home our own transience. And while it may be too much to ask to celebrate this truth under such dire circumstances, we can learn to tolerate the unknown, and perhaps even catch glimpses of the beauty underlying life’s uncertainties. 

Fraser River Tour III

To find beauty in the uncertainties! I observed the Fraser River from various vantage points: from a bridge, on its shores, by daylight and sunset. I would even bend over and peer through my legs, marveling at the beautiful inverted landscape. If you can’t change the world, change how you see it — even if that means contorting yourself. 

—Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountain and flowing for 1,375 kilometres (854 mi), into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver.

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” —A.A. Milne

43 years in Canada

1978年2月21日我站在香港啟德機場平台上, 在寒冷早晨的陽光裡, 腳下放著行李箱, 我看著不遠之處的泛美航機747, 世界上最大型噴射機, 很快就會帶我去紐約然後去多倫多。我充滿了恐懼和不安, 最正確不過的恐慌, 例如, 在小島上生活和在有無限機會的新世界中作出選擇, 而不是困在一個男權至上社會中的暗淡前景, 因為我的人生選擇是如此有限。回頭看來, 這個行動像閃耀的北極光, 是我人生的轉捩點, 讓我可以受教育, 讓我在這個收容我的國家加拿大站起來。去過無數的地方, 經過無數的變動, 現在我在這裡, 溫哥華。

It was the 21st of February, 1978. I was standing on a platform in Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. In the brightness of a cold morning, a suitcase at my feet, I was watching the Pan Am 747, the largest jumbo jet in the world, which would soon take me to New York then to Toronto. I was full of fear and uncertainty. It was all scarily accurate. It was, for instance, opting for the remote island life and a chance at the new world’s infinite opportunities instead of a gloomy future in a male dominated society because my choices in life were so limited. Looking back, this move shine through time like the northern light. It was a turning point, allowing me to have education and stand upright in my adopted country Canada. After many places, many moves, here I am, in Vancouver now.

Fraser River Tour II

January in Vancouver is challenging when you haven't really experienced it before. The days are really short. It starts at 8 am and ends at 4 pm. Which means there are about six hours of useful daylight. We don’t get to see the sun, because it only appears once every two weeks for 30 minutes if we're lucky. 
This is the most dreary part of the year in Vancouver. Wet, cold, damp, dull, grey, dark… only if the sun is out and all is well with the world.
And finally the sun came out today, and more than 30 minutes! 
Actually making it outside into the weather, the naked trees, the flying birds, changes everything. I walked to Fraser River in the wind, and breathed in the cold air at the top. It felt like the right thing to do after the year of 2020. Wish everyone well and alive! 

—Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountain and flowing for 1,375 kilometres (854 mi), into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver.

Fraser River Tour I

We are in our 10th months of restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic. There have been 765 deaths in B.C. and 14,331 deaths in Canada. 

Here, in our little place in LuLu Island, beauty and horror co-exist. I cannot complain of much hardship where we are. We live in a beautiful townhome surrounded by parks, farmland and oh yeah... Fraser River. But I am thinking about the deaths, the healthcare workers, and worrying about my mother, my daughters... Like many people, I've been struggling with sleep!

Walking it out may be the answer. I did 5 km this morning. I'd like to call it the Fraser River Tour — I started at home, and walked to River Road, skirted nettlebed and back home through #3 Road. The rose bushes are fading now, but there is cow parsley everywhere. And snow geese are returning, flying gently in the sunshine. Yes, walk it out, I say.

But this morning, oh my goodness, there wasn't anything else to say. How can we possibly begin to appreciate all this beauty?

—Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountain and flowing for 1,375 kilometres (854 mi), into the Strait of Georgia at the city of Vancouver.

不枉此生

不穿名牌設計, 不收集鑽戒金飾, 不駕駛名廠新車, 不研究股票行情, 不做社團主席, 不聯群結黨, 不拉攏吹捧, 餘下來可以與人交往的活動已經不多, 幸好從小養成獨來獨往的性格, 一個人看電影, 聽音樂會, 在家讀書一樣可以自得其樂, 在人叢裡笑聲語聲中, 一樣可以感到孤寂與落寞, 我利用孤獨時間來思考。

後來有伴, 可以攜手同遊歐洲, 可以暢談黑澤明電影, 可以共赴卜狄倫演唱會, 但仍然是兩個思想獨立的人, 現在家庭事業兼顧, 依然留點時間空間給自己, 不能忍受自己的智慧如一池死水般, 停留在某一個階段中不動, 我是個不安份的人, 在有生之年多學一點, 多知一點, 有人安於現狀, 朝九晚五, 閒來研究那家餐館好吃, 那間市場平價, 亦有人勤於積累財富, 疲於奔命, 錢以外事物一摡不理, 這也沒有什麼不對, 只不過有人喜歡井底小天地, 有人喜歡長空萬里, 直下看山河。

都是中年人了, 時間愈見寶貴, 十八歲時自以為是天才, 廿八歲才醒覺是庸才, 唯有加倍努力以勤補拙, 萬卷詩書事業, 十份一也做不到, 心底著實焦急起來, 莊子說: 以有涯生命追求無涯的知識, 殆之矣。

所以有人閒來逛公司喝下午茶串門子說是非, 心裡立刻嫌棄, 此人怎地不事生產, 有時間可以做義工, 又或留在家裡讀書寫字, 總好過花蝴蝶般穿插社交場所, 此等場所流言最多, 老之將至, 那裡還有時間精力跟人喋喋不休紏纏下去。

漫長的人生道路, 必然有得有失, 絶不怕挫折和失意, 唯有經過苦難才知道生命的真義, 在垂暮之年, 回首前塵, 我不曾白活, 都學過了, 做過了, 愛過了, 哭過了, 我將帶著微笑而離去...

—1991年5月1日發表在加京華報

香港/Vancouver IV

香港

Vancouver