Life along the Yangtze and Mississippi -- The Chinese toilet -- Aurora Borealis -- Ten bodies -- Tough love -- Allen Ginsberg's apology for Buddha -- The biggest dam on Earth -- Xiao Family Village -- Wanzhou orchids -- The last nail in the dam -- Maverick in Three Gorges -- The road to joy -- Morning cloud, evening rain -- Petition -- The Tiger Leaping Gorge -- Lhasa Square -- Old home -- The Grand Canal of China -- Kelisu diner -- Gypsies at the Cahokia Mound -- Alton ghosts -- BMW -- The fig tree of Cairo -- Memphis: ribs, pyramid & magnolia grandiflora -- The great crossroads -- Choctaw Island -- The basin keeper from Atchafalaya -- The end of the bird's foot -- We are water -- Coda: my kintsugi.
Summary:
"There are only two ways to live our life, according to Albert Einstein: one is as if nothing is a miracle, the other, as if everything is a miracle. Life of Miracles along the Yangtze and Mississippi is a book how the impossible became possible, things that happened to me in China and America, to the people I grew up with, met and befriended along my journeys between the Yangtze and Mississippi. This is also a story about water, alive with spirits and energy, giving births to all sentient beings. We are water. The river runs through us. Those who live in harmony with water can ride the current of the universe-the secret of Tao, reaching all the way to the sea of miracles, one story, one droplet, and one wave at a time. Miracle is a state of mind, a way of living: how we face hardship, pain and tragedies, how we transform them into fuels for our journey, and transcend them to joy and hope. It's a book how ordinary people perform miracles every day, how we are touched, touching, all the time, across oceans and continents, across time and space, through our stories"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.