sunshine smiles

The internet isn't working right now. I am not upset since it really isn't my internet; I have just been picking up wireless from my neighbours since we moved into this apartment. It reminds me of living on the boat when I would write my ridiculously long emails in Microsoft Word and then when they were all ready I would hook up to the cellphone that we had as a modem and spend less than five minutes actually online sending emails and downloading new ones to read onto my desktop.

As relaxing as life at sea can be, I learned how to complete many every day tasks in unfathomably short periods of time. For example, showering became an art form which I was able to master; I could wash my hair, face, body, condition my hair, and shave in four minutes. The need for speed here was that on the boat we had limited water, and when we were at a marina the showers generally cost two dollars for two minutes. So two twoonies later I would be squeaky clean and ready for another week at sea. I also became adept at washing dishes and preparing meals at an amazingly efficient rate. Like I mentioned before we had limited fresh water on board so the quick dishwashing was to remedy the water situation, and the quick cooking was because the stove and oven only worked when the large generator- not something that happened frequently or lasted for any substantial duration. Oh the woes of a cook at sea.

It was almost a year ago exactly that I was working on the boat and my memories, as they always seem to be, are quite joyful ones. Joyfulness can be easy to find in memories, and I also find it easy to become joyful when thinking of things to come in the future. Something for me to practice then is to be joyful in the present.

I am planning my move to China right now and I am having a hard time narrowing down where I should move. China is a relatively large country and I really am armed with no specific needs to send me to any one city. I know I am going to be quite lonely there at times, and as always being so far away from home and anything familiar I have no doubts that there will be times when I get homesick. Abdu'l-Baha has a quote that I came across this week that says joy gives us wings; and that in times of joy we are actually stronger than when we are sad. So, I like the sound of having wings, and I don't particularly like redbull, so I figured I could begin to narrow down my chinese hometown by making a list of things that bring me joy, which can then be transferred into what a certain chinese place has to offer.

So far my joy list is:

sunshine
fruit

ocean
young children
old people
smiles
coffee

What I have come to conclude as of recently is that I will most likely be living in the Guangdong Province, perhaps Fujian Province. And hopefully in a coastal city. I think my list needs to become more specific now tho.

I got to spend some time with a two year old earlier this week, and she really knew how to be joyful. The simplest things, like handing out cards, re-collecting the cards and then handing them out again made her gurgle with joy, or an elastic being spun between an older girls fingers that had her in fits of giggles. I have learned from the elderly and the toddler. Us neither elderly nor toddlers are useless except to learn I guess.

The virtue for this week now is courtesy.

PS I am now at my parents house where I have a valid internet connection and I wanted to add a joyful moment that I just had this evening. My mom and I had a few friends over and watched part one of a talk on the Baha'i Covenant by Dr. Ali Nakhjavani. We had some beautifully uplifting prayers and wonderfully spiritually conversation. All three parts of the talk can be found here.

http://video. google.com/ videosearch? q=nakhjavani&emb=0&aq=f#