So It's been a while, but I'm finally posting about my trip over Fall Break :)
So for fall break, four of my friends and I went to Kaifeng, Luoyang, and Xian, in the more mid-north part of China.
During the course of our trip, we visited the Shaolin Temple. Yes, that's right, THE Shaolin Temple! (cue epic battle music) To get there from Kaifeng, we had to take a bus to a van that takes you up the mountain road to the Temple.
At the Temple, aside from the incredible ancient historical buildings, the sight of monks walking about, the awe-inspiring martial arts presentations by the young training monks, there's Song Mountain (Songshan Mountain Range) that's counted among one of the 5 Great Mountains in China.
Yeah so I climbed part of it, and it changed my life! I learned so many life lessons, I thought I'd share with you!
At first I thought the cable car was all there was to this mountain, but then as it turned out, there was an entire range to climb! Not only that, but when I looked into the hazy distance, there was a temple on the other side of the range.
We started out climbing. At times I was so focused on the steps and not falling, that when I finally lifted my eyes from my feet and looked around me, I saw one of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen in my LIFE. I'd never seen mountains like this before, and it just reminded me something that a wise man once told me:
Lesson 1: "you have to understand that its not just about your destination, but the journey it took you to get there as well. Head to your destination, but appreciate the path too."
As we continued along the path, (although we really should've been heading in the opposite direction, back down the cable car, to the Shaolin Martial Arts Show, we were scheduled to see) sometimes I found myself intimidated by how many steps there were, and how steep the steps were at times. Like "My legs are already shaky from walking so much this whole day! Idk how I'm gonna make it up all these stairs"
LESSON 2: Anywho, as cliche as it sounds, then it occurred to me that if I just too it "one step at a time", literally, then climbing wasn't nearly as daunting or impossible to do.
We were wondering how long it'd take us to reach the temple, and we saw some people who were getting tired on the way there, so to encourage my fellow climbers, I just said "Jia You!" (add oil-> It's like Chinese for "go get em! keep moving forward!" all that cheering stuff)
Funnily enough, once when I was slowing down, getting tired, some dude I had passed before saw me panting, looked at me expectantly and said "Jia You." as if to say "Have you forgotten what you told me, already?"
.. Yeah so I just HAD to pass him again.
My friend told me that we HAD to start walking back, even though we hadn't yet reached the temple, and though I wanted to keep going, and eventually get there, I felt like I had learned enough, and experienced enough on that mountain, which taught me yet ANOTHER lesson:
Lesson 1.2: Sometimes, even not reaching your destination is ok, if you can say that you appreciated your journey, and your effort in the first place. So long as you can honestly say "I did my best", then all is well. :)
Then one last thought occurred to me as I walked back toward the cable cars, that although the journey was difficult for those of us on the mountain (which included babies being carried by parents, to really old people)
someone had to carve those stairs in the first place.
WHAT MUST THAT HAVE BEEN LIKE FOR THEM?!
yeah so after that I couldn't even THINK of complaining.
