At Qizhen Lake, I like watching the clouds in the water. Beneath a blue sky, the mirror-smooth surface always reflects those white shapes overhead. From afar come drumbeats and chants keeping time with each stroke of an oar. They drift towards the railings of the East II and West II teaching buildings, mingling with the voices of young women in plain dresses reading aloud. On the Great Wall, I like watching the clouds in the sky. Frost-touched leaves turn the Fragrant Hills red, each ridge redder than the last. Across the vastness of northern China, the slanting evening sun sets the clouds ablaze. How cool the air, how lovely the autumn! And on the plane, what kind of clouds did I see?
A boundless sea of clouds, set apart from the sky at the horizon, flowing freely. Light scattered through them in broken waves, like gold in the melting, bathing everything in hope and nourishing a weary traveller’s parched heart. The wind came and went, washing away stray thoughts until only a purity like that of the clouds remained. At the farthest edge of sight, where light met darkness, rose-coloured cloud tips reached out to the couple in the seats ahead, bearing witness to the meeting of two souls in this life. The clouds nearby seemed close enough to touch, layered like bolts of silk, dense and soft. How did they know I was travelling west, and lay out a Silk Road for me?
Clouds, it turns out, are a mirror. When I look at them with hope, what I see naturally shines with golden light. When I am very old and all alone, perhaps I will find only the sorrow of “The sunset is infinitely beautiful, but dusk is drawing near.” As Jiaxuan wrote, “I find the green mountains so enchanting; I imagine they must see me in the same way.” The world reflects the heart. Our attitude towards life may be a kind of filter: look through a different one, and the world changes entirely. An ordinary scene, once infused with feeling, can become a thing of extraordinary beauty. No wonder people say that value is something we give.
I often marvel at the rich and colourful lives of others. Today it occurred to me that a colourful life must come with a colourful attitude. If you merely drift through your days, how could you ever inspire that kind of wonder? What makes Sun Shaoping in Ordinary World so cool is his attitude towards life: with the fading sun at his back, he still has the courage to greet the dawn. Our teacher Xiaobo says that life is about the attitude you bring to it. Joining the Intensive Training Program (ITP) is a positive attitude in itself: refusing to settle for the ordinary, pursuing excellence, doing better. I think it is precisely this attitude that makes life in ITP so much more colourful.
Dare to dream. Stay positive. Take responsibility. Keep smiling. DPRS!
