Shuhe ancient city next to Lijiang, China

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The third week traveling with heavy backpack- I hunger for the blind massage who sees all of my bodily pain. Body sore from carrying my American baggage down meandering cobblestone roads. YET, of course, pain and endurance is all relative as I ponder and see high heel ladies walking seemingly effortlessly over uneven crater like surfaces. Beauty pays comfort a user fee at every street corner...

Body sore and I seek out blind massage man down unnamed alley next to the unnamed town square. I stumble upon a woman who is carving a Buddha, Manjushri, Buddha of wisdom, from clay. Her name is Lynn and she just moved to Shuhe with a few friends to start a Buddhist temple. We chat and connect and meet up for dinner. An extended family of 5 Buddhist- Lynn and her 12 year old artist daughter, an unrelated 8 year old boy who meditates 3 hours a day, and a Buddhist scholar and his sister- and I, a wandering joyful old adventurous Pippi, all travel in heavy rainstorms to the nearby temple where two monks live. The temple is an a cave and has existed for 800 years. As I enter I see a huge statute of Milipera and Manjushri. As we eat dinner in a small bedroom, eight of us are connected. The 2 monks are form Aba and we know many mutual friends in Aba. Lynn was a translator for Henry Kissinger in 1998 as he traveled around China.

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