Towers of glass and steel, the multitude of lights of all shapes and sizes, signs and images, advertisements and the incessant reminder of time-this is the city.
Yet what makes the city beautiful?
After coming back from a German-themed lunch, catching the last song in a free concert for up-and-coming artist [something] Chou, and then fielding questions and bravely enduring the smothering love of my dear Little Aunt and Uncle...I was rushing, rushing from the Ximen MRT station to the 307 bus stop-and then, I heard it.
My ears caught the plaintive, heartlifting melody of the erhu. My mind abruptly halted the planning and goalsetting and cataloguing all the things that had happened the past 24 hours-just to listen.
The city is where human expression finds its audience most readily. The city is where one can become jaded to the masses of immortal beings that stream past us on a daily basis, yet it provides the outlet for that one soul to pour out its longings and thoughts and be appreciated by those who stop and listen. This city has shown me the preciousness, the beauty, and the inevitable limitations of humanness.
Family-I now know the lives of my cousins and aunts/uncles on an intimate level. I know the lives of my friends when they are most vulnerable (or most powerful, as the case may be)-when they are at home. I have touched the souls of my kin, and have for the first time felt the cold fear of eternal separation grip my heart. My prayers as a kid always were systematic: from oldest aunt to youngest cousin, every day we'd give up halfhearted, innocently feeble prayers for their lives. Yet now I see the horrific damage of a lack of prayer warriors. I feel their blindness, yet am helpless to undo what years of aimless wandering and toxic lukewarm faith have done to their view of Christ. Oh, may God have mercy on my family!
Faith-My heart has been strengthened by so many beautiful demonstrations of God's grace in my life, so many spiritual lessons to prepare my heart for medical school. God demonstrates most by using His body, and I've been tremendously blessed to meet three wonderful brothers and sisters during my time in Asia who have spoken life into my soul. (by divine providence, they're all med students!) Climbing a mountain behind zhen da in Taipei with two of my cousins gave me renewed praise in my heart for God's creation-we saw so many butterflies, spiders, cicadas...the mountains were teeming with life!
Myself-I can now more deeply appreciate the fullness of my blessings. Surely God has been good to me, in more ways than I could ever hope for or imagine! Only after I have left home do I appreciate the person God has molded me to become-and have confidence that He will bring His work in me to completion according to His plan. I realized for the first time what it means for my heart to leap, to ache, to be given away. It's a scary experience, and one that I'm still grappling with even now.
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I just came back from surfing. man, that was a spectacular, mindblowing experience! Yet much, much harder than the hype. riding the waves-yet the key is this: to not grasp the board or to try and control your "balance," but rather to feel the waves, to literally go with the flow (of course with the correct form, plastered on the board). now I know why surfers are so chill!
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