Over the River...

It was an exciting moment, and I had been looking forward to it for quite some time...

The day before, I boarded the train for Beijing. Since I had taken the iron horse from Hong Kong to the country's capital last year, I anticipated an exciting trip - friendly faces in my train car with an innocent curiosity in who this young foreigner might be, interesting conversations in the hard sleeper bunk area about everyday life in China, stories of visiting various tourist and cultural sites in Hong Kong, and learning more about Chinese language and culture in a very practical, down to earth setting. Last year, due to whatever technical difficulties, our train left late, and the schedule was somewhat altered. So, this year, as scheduled, we passed over the powerful Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) even earlier in the wee hours of the morning than we did last year. I knew I'd have to wait until another time to see the longest river in Asia which flows from the soaring mountains of Tibet and pours into the magnificent Pacific Ocean.

I was getting ready to eat my lunch up on my top bunk, since it is rather inconvenient to move my things up and down, when I heard the announcement over the loud speakers that we were about the pass over the impressive Yellow River. Immediately, I grabbed my camera and scrambled down from my hard sleeper. I had wanted to see this for such a long time. As I looked out the dirt speckled window with a kind retired lady in my bunk area, the power of the river and the extent of its influence created in me an excitement and a gratefulness to be there at that moment in time! To see such an important facet of the Chinese geographical, historical, cultural, and social sustenance was absolutely breathtaking.

Thinking back on the moment, it is actually rather bittersweet. A giver of life for hundreds of millions of people, the river provides the life giving element for so many mouths. A devastating plague of death for millions of others, the river's floods represent many of the harsh realities of life throughout history. The Chinese have endured the bitterness of the tragic existence in this fallen world, and they have much to teach us about being thankful not only for celebrating the abundance of life but also for the lessons we can learn from the unwanted disasters.

It is a bittersweet moment...
A giver of life, a plague of death... A time to rejoice, A time to weep... A time to learn...
Over the River...