A wonderful journey: human encounters

Chinese Version
2021-10-23, Saturday, Cloudy in the morning, Sunny in the afternoon

In the afternoon, I walked to the top of Prospect Hill which is near my home. The top of the hill is a good place to look at Prudential Tower, one of Boston’s landmark buildings in the East.

Because of construction, the road to the hill has been closed for more than half a year now, so there are not many people wandering at the top of the hill. After climbing to the top, while sitting on a wooden bench, I looked at the buildings of downtown Boston in the distance and listened to the live performance of a well-known Chinese pianist, who recently became a hot topic, at the Chopin Piano Competition in 2000. I suddenly heard someone speaking Chinese behind me. I turned around and looked back and I saw a middle-aged couple. I remembered how we had met in the same place last autumn, and so did they. We all marveled at each other’s good memory, because I still remember their careers and their son, and they also remember my career and my children. We are all in our late 50′s, our over one year of random memories being so clear made us very happy, so we chatted joyfully until the sky was dark.

After noticing LL was chubbier than last year, I congratulated her: “I am happy to see you gained weight. You looked so skinny last year.” “I was ill last year,” she replied. I asked her with concern: “What disease made you so thin?” “It was neck and shoulder pain.” I asked again: “Did you get 50 shoulders? I have a friend who can’t even wear a bra after getting 50 shoulders, because her arm could not bend behind her back.” “My arms can bend. It is not 50 shoulders. It’s a cervical musical strain.” “How long has your neck been uncomfortable?” “My neck has been uncomfortable for more than 10 years but it has not attracted my attention because I am otherwise in very good health. When I heard the story of illness and pain, I always thought it was someone else’s story. Now it has become my own story.” I felt the same way: “After 50, age becomes unforgiving and we need to take good care of ourselves.”

LL held out her wearing glove hands and said: “Even with gloves on, my hands are still cold. My husband said I had poor blood circulation.” I said, “I used to have cold hands and feet, after menopause, my hands and feet are warm now.” LL said: “You seem to take good care of yourself.” I said: “I remember my mother’s hands were always warm. When I was young, I liked to hold my mother’s hands in winter.”

LL also told me:”I’m practicing Baduanjin. I feel it’s useful.” After she went back home, she shared the video link of Baduanjin with me.

Recently, I really paid attention to sharing knowledge of how to maintain a healthy mind and body. Last year, I asked QM for a good ophthalmologist, as LL was inquiring about. This year, I recommended traditional Chinese acupuncture to LL for her cervical musical strain. In fact, these resources I used were coming from my college roommate Ping, as we live in the Greater Boston Area now. I feel thankful for the more than 30 years of friendship between Ping and I.

It was getting dark and we waved goodbye to each other. After returning home, I thought about today’s accidental meeting and our conversation about our alive and late mothers and our health at present. I had a good time, as if I had just finished a satisfactory joyful journey. I suddenly realized that a wonderful journey could either be visiting mountains and rivers from afar and being shocked by the beauty of nature; or a human encounter locally and being affected by human kindness.

Little Episodes

10-23-2021, From Prospect Hill overlooking Boston:
211013Phill

Bump into:
The Boston Marathon(10/2021)
A brave lonely camper(06/2021)
An outdoor baby shower in the cold winter(12/2020)
A family outdoor game in cold snow(12/2020)
A brave old man (10/2020)
In the rain(02/2020)
Getting help to jump start my care(01/2019)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>