great china summer tour 2009

24 days, 5 cities, 1 mountaintop village, 4 flights, 1 26-hour train ride with no air conditioning, 1 hot air balloon, 1 kayaking trip, 1 epic karaoke night, 1 night in the mongolian grasslands, 1 frolic through a desert, 1 crazy chinese wedding, countless toasts with glasses of bai jiu (chinese distilled liquor with 80-120 proof), and 11 amazing friends (old and new) who joined for various legs of the trip....thus ends the great china summer tour 0f 2009. i took this holiday with some of my closest friends from shanghai, and it was the last hurrah for a good friend and colleague who is moving back to england.

lots of thoughts on journeys, friendships, china, beauty, culture and all that. but for now, some favorite images from the great tour. :)

swimming in yangshuo....ahhhhh.......

sportin' our new do-rags

enjoying the view from our hot air balloon

big group dinner - last night in yangshuo!

"mary" and "minnie", two adorable girls we met in gengda, sichuan province

jump! inner mongolian desert-style

ting ting's wedding

cups of coffee: 2

mood: catching up on life......

kitty kitty

i was never really into cats until little jimmy mcnulty came meowing into my life. but through this little furball that tears up my couch and tears through the apartment in a streak of ginger, i am learning about grace and care, sacrifice and love, in fresh ways.

i know, i know, he's just a cat. but sometimes, the unconditional love from a kitten makes everything better.

there's a poignant blog entry by daniel siedell about the death of his cat, sasha, after 20 years. it's a thoughtful reflection, deeper than mourning the loss of a pet. this observation by siedell particularly struck me:

I find that hope in the contours and trajectory of the Scriptures, which reveal the limitless surprises of God's grace. And I am heartened that it caught C.S. Lewis's attention as well, whose love of his life, Joy, had a house full of cats. Here is what he suggests. The very reason for creation itself is the overflowing of love that sloshes over the limits of the Trinitarian relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The world is brought into this relationship, borne out of and sustained by divine love through the incarnation of the Son. It is God's love that saves. And Lewis speculates that it might be our love that saves the animals, namely, those domesticated animals that are the beneficiaries of our Christ-centered love. Our pets, Lewis suggests, grow into something more as they participate in our love, a love grounded in and through God's love, which is Christ. And that love, because it is God-like, is life-creating. And so, perhaps when Christ returns, and, according to Revelation of St. John, "makes all things new," animals who have been shaped in and through this human love will participate in what is made new. (Siedell)

the limitless surprises of God's grace...love that sloshes over..... i love that imagery. perhaps it may be wishful thinking to hope that our beloved pets will frolic in heaven. but what is certain is the boundless grace of God, the ways in which His love manifests in creation, touching our hearts and opening our eyes to His goodness daily. whether it is through His provisions, family and friends, or the purring of a kitty content in your lap, His grace is constantly sufficient as He continues to use all things to shape and mold our hardened hearts into the pumping, bleeding, living things He created and intended.

cups of coffee: 1, with soymilk

mood: tiiiiiiiired

current fixes

every once in awhile, i find things that i'm really into. by "into" i mean obsessed. so here are my current fixations:

- twitter! grace convinced me to join twitter, and now i'm seriously addicted. i may need twitter-vention soon. until then, here are some of my favorites-to-follow on twitter:

http://twitter.com/Atlantic_Food - news from the food industry, recipes and other delectable tidbits from the staff at the atlantic monthly (where i interned as a senior in college, by the way)

http://twitter.com/nytimeskristof - if i could quit my job and go save the world with nicholas kristof, i would.

http://twitter.com/theartmarket - great source of news from the global art market

http://twitter.com/joannagoddard - fun feed and blog from joanna goddard, writer for glamour magazine.

- design*sponge! yummy, yummy design. did i mention yummy?

- city journal. a friend emailed me an article entitled 'beauty and desecration' by roger scruton, published in city journal. this led to my discovery of this fascinating publication focused on urban affairs. currently in the midst of devouring articles....

- mates of state. husband and wife indie rock duo, traveling around with their kids and playing awesome music. sigh.....my dream life. i love the song 'fraud in the '80s'.

- nectarine season!!!!!! there's a grilled chicken and nectarine salad recipe i'm dying to try....


cups of coffee: 1

mood: sweatin'

shanghai sculpture park

happiness is....

sunny day
waterfall
trampoliny thing
sand and water
grass tickling feet

shanghai sculpture park. if you live in shanghai, you MUST check it out.

cups of coffee: 2

mood: stuffed from great restaurant opening at boxing cat brewery

it's all a gift

“The grace of God means something like this: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you. There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”

- Frederich Buechner


cups of coffee: 1, with soymilk

mood: relaaaaaaxing

sappy

intentionally cheesy. :)


bread and honey
eva ting

you are my bread and honey,
my warmth and sweet—
what i crave and long to eat
up, drizzled in syrup love.

you are my guilty pleasure,
my comfort food,
the very thing that makes me sink and swoon.

my chocolate-covered strawberries,
my glass of fancy champagne,
the bubbles that float straight to my brain.

you are the gumdrops, the peppermint sticks,
the frosting and frills of a gingerbread house—
indulgence i simply cannot do without.

most of all, you are my bread and honey,
my warmth and sweet—
what i want to come home to
after a long day out
in the cold, cold winter.


cups of coffee: 1 1/2

mood: rain, rain, go away...

love, love, love

ah, spring. when a young man (and woman) turn thoughts to love. seems like everyone around me is twitterpated. whether it's the budding of new relationships or the celebration of weddings, the joy is infectious.

there are also friends who are in the throes of ending relationships--dating break-ups, divorces.... such is life, i suppose.

i wrote this poem a couple of years ago and have since shared it with friends mourning the loss of a relationship. at the time that i penned it, it was a declaration as much as a reminder that life is an unfolding story, each chapter unpredictable and each season filled with surprises. underpinning the ups and downs is a love that sustains, bigger than what our imaginations can hold and more gracious than what our hearts can comprehend. as sandra mccracken so deftly puts it in one of her latest songs, "love is an ocean trying to fill this tiny cup."

anyway. here 'tis:

love will come

when you are sleeping, eyes closed

dreaming of hills and vales and pink sunsets,

the edges tinged and singed with a constant glow.

love will come

when charting your course,

eyes turned heavenwards,

pleading the stars for benevolent direction,

plotting, plodding.

love will come

when your heart in shards and tears

lie scattered

and your eyes laden with regrets

sway with desperate solace.

love will come and come again,

whispering and growing,

thrilling and comforting,

the pain and the ecstasy rolled in one giant ball of knotted hope

yet when unraveled, quite simple

and simply

to give

and give again.

cups of coffee: 2

mood: eh