The title of the article forwarded by a friend is "Being considerate of the people you love & holding the world with tolerance"
The article started with a story...
One professor asked the class "I would like to play a little game with you, who would like to participate first?" A girl raised her hand and walked to the front of the classroom. The professor said "Please write down 20 names of the most important people who you couldn't give up in your life." The girl did so, writing down names including her neighbors, family, friends, and etc.
The professor said "Please write off one who is relatively not so important to you." She wrote off one name of her neighbor. "Please write off another one." She wrote off one name of her colleague... At the end there were three names left, her parent, her son, and her husband. Now it's quiet in the room, because it's not felt like a game anymore. The professor said "one more please." The girl struggled, and then wrote off the name of her parent. "Please, one more." The girl got shocked, wrote off the name of her son hardly, and got tears in her eyes... Few minutes later, the professor asked the girl "The closest people to you shall be your parents and child. Your parents raised you, and the child was born from you. You shall be able to find another husband. Why did you think your husband is the last one you couldn't give up?" The girl said slowly "as the time passed, my parents would leave the world before me, my son would leave me for his own life, but my husband is the one who are going to company me for the whole life."
The story doesn't mean to lead to a specific choice among our parents, children, and partner. Instead, it reminded me of the priorities. Spending time with people you love, opening heart to people who care, sharing life with people around the world... We might not encounter the situation of choosing who to survive among the people we love, but we would face the situation that loved ones left the world and us. What is a success life? It could be building a success career, traveling around the world, keeping healthy, or having someone who loves you and whom you love.
Another story just jumped into my head. A successful business man with lots of friends reached the end of his life. Lots people stopped by or sent flowers. However, no one really spent time with him to share his feeling, because he didn't really love anyone or have someone who really loved him.
We keep looking back and right now, and reminding ourselves of the importance of the priorities. If we can't have everything we want, we could set priorities to go for the most important one, and have other things planned around. In this case, we could have the most important item, and enjoy the others sometimes as well. Well, running a business is easier than running a life I think. :P
We went to a bar for a drink after dinner. I think this bar could be my favorite bar so far. First of all, it was a church with relatively huge space. Sitting on the couch with the high ceiling, I felt extremely comfortable. Secondly, since Jenny is a wine expert, we got a nice white wine. I love the cozy feeling over there.
Drinking at the balcony, looking at the full moon, smoking cigar, chatting with friends, somehow we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival while we are far away from home. On Sunday, after the great breakfast, taking four bottles of nice wine from Jenny, we were on the way back to NL. Thanks for Jenny and Patrick's hospitality!
On the way back to Eindhoven, we visited Frankfurt. The city itself is OK. Walking along the river in a sunny day surprisingly made me to like a big city like Frankfurt a bit. :)
After another 2.4km, we were back to Paiyun Lodge and had the second breakfast. Foods in the mountain tests even fresher and better. Taking 3.5 hours down, we finished the 8.5km which took us 7 hours up. Why did we walk so fast? It's because delicious watermelons are waiting! :P
