I don't know about you, but I usually don't plan very far ahead. I mean, I visualize and meditate on the very far-off future. But I don't plan. Too much 'life' can happen between now and 20 years from now, right?

It's interesting what a 20-year High School reunion did to change my perspective. For the first time, I'm able to look back at a chunk of time and say 'that's what 20 years is like' and actually semi-understand it.
I guess it isn't surprising that stepping out of High School, nobody asks "What Shall I Do With the Next 20 Years?" No one decides to live a rich and rewarding life so as to have good stories to tell at their reunion.

In the variety of life stories I did hear, I think that was evident. A couple of my classmates even said the words, "It's amazing but I feel like I really haven't done much in 20 years." "How weird that it took me 20 years to do what I just told you in 2 minutes." "I guess life can go by and you don't realize it..."

Thankfully, stepping out of the High School Reunion, I felt quite different. All of a sudden I realized, "What Shall I Do With the Next 20 Years?" is just as good a question for now as before! If I missed asking it then, I don't have to miss asking it now. The next time I see ANY of these lovely ladies, we'll all be eligible for discounted senior citizen fares for the bus. What stories will we have to catch up on then? Nothing much exciting? Something extraordinary? If something in between, will we be done telling it in 2 minutes?

And wow, you know, we only really get 4 or maybe 5 units of 20 years, each --

I never used to believe people when they said time moves faster as you get older, but now I do. 20 years from now I'm planning to have some GREAT stories to tell.

What would you like to have done in the next 5, 10, 20 years? How much good will you do with your one life in just the next 12 months?

P.S. Yes, that's my grad class photo. Can you find me? (Click the thumbnail photo to enlarge.) Even some of my non-High School closest friends couldn't pick me out, they all thought I was Ferida Yang. Hint: After telling Suzanne Falter-Barns which one is me - she said...

"Wow Andrea, what IS that, a Chinese afro?"

"Resistance is about believing you are vulnerable or susceptible to something not wanted

and holding a stance of protection

which only holds you in a place of not letting in the well-being
that would be there otherwise.

There is nothing big enough

to protect you

from unwanted things -

and there are no unwanted things big enough

to get into your experience."

-- Abraham-Hicks

When you get that palpable sensation of having one foot on the gas, and one foot on the brakes in your life, where do you turn, what do you do?

The Maui Writers Conference last week was...

Delightful - A full 10 days in an environment of bright and shiny, creative thinkers from hundreds of walks of life, not to mention sweetly-scented air and ocean all around, made for a multisensory feast of an exeperience. It was also extremely...

Fruitful - Two literary agents and one editor are interested in seeing two book proposals. Two other agents are willing for me to stay in touch on behalf of clients who have books coming up themselves. And one editor was tolerably encouraging of the idea that I might hang up a shingle as agent in the new year, and call him with a couple of pitches. "If you think you have an eye for recognizing talent, that's a gift that separates regular agents from agents I want to work with." Excellent!

For those of you who'd love to 'piggyback' on this immersion experience, I'd be delighted to share an infusion. If you'd like to know more about:

- the big picture of the publishing world as I've been learning it the last several months...
- the little picture of the players in that world (what do they wear, eat, read?) after 'living' with them for a week...
- what's occuring with the 'new media' revolution and what it means...
- the distinctions between publishing and self-publishing, and...
- which projects I'll put on the mainstream publishing track - which ones I'll self-publish, and why...

Of course, post-conference life is terribly interrupted now, by design. And I'm grateful. Like a big trunk full of toys collected over the years, sometimes you have to dump all the pieces of your life on the ground in a mess in order to decide what to play with next.

Interrupting life this way means it will be impossible to put all the toys back the way they were before. What a perfect relief!

On a personal note, two things:

Snorkelling and swimming has freed me from residual body-fear. 10 weeks after my surgery and that's a good thing. Yes, I am smiling!

Well actually make that grinning from ear to ear because my hubby Mike had an even more incredible time than I did at the conference. Of the 3 tracks at the event, Mike took part in the most intensive - Screenwriting with Director Michael Palmieri (Chico's Angels, Michael P is on the right, my hubby at left), featuring Bobby Moresco (Crash), Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and others. Among 29 attendees in the group, only two wrote in the romantic comedy genre - you know that genre where the movies are either fabulous (When Harry Met Sally, French Kiss) or really really horrible (names omitted to protect the innocent)?

Well, my Mike took the screenwriting track's prize for best screenplay. Even better, his writing met with - in his words - "laughs basically right on cue, pages in a row" which had him the ultimate Cloud 9. Then, an agent asked if he had a manager and invited him to take next steps.

Let's just say that with a free ticket to next year's conference, $1000 in prize money, massive validation and a ton of new questions (Will we move to LA as hinted would be wise? Of all the new ideas, which screenplay will Mike tackle next? Is this really real, pinch me/us/him!)....... this is life - perfectly interrupted - for us at this moment.

With that...perhaps a little of this energy can be turned around to good use for you. That is after all, the point right? Will you join us for an energized fall? Why do I think you have a ruckus you're itching to create, underneath your skin? Or maybe its something you're spinning, silky and smooth?

I think of Fall as such a great non-new-year non-cliche time for refreshment and renewal...a counter-culture overachiever's fantasy. So while no one else has noticed the January 1st that's looming yet - what will you do with your life and business next? Will you solidify the road you are on? Will you try something new? What will feel good and feed you energy? What will you whittle away?

I'm looking forward to reading whatever's useful to you to share, and hearing you on the Open House call, once again, registration details above. More Maui stories to come...

Use the player below to listen to the recording of this call or click the link below the player to download the mp3:

With bright lights on the ceiling and a mask over my face, I smiled my last conscious breath in. It would be the last thing I remembered for 3 hours - how happy and calm I felt in that suspended moment! I breathed through the plastic as I thought of people around the world, at home playing loud music, dancing like it was their last dance on earth, and thinking loving thoughts as my surgery began. That was June 27.

For all your energetic well-wishes, I thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart.

Cut to today. It's six weeks later, and I'm back at my laptop, happily tapping away. Much like my inbox, engorged with 2800 emails earlier, now culled down to 250, I'm quite considerably de-cluttered as well! In the end, Dr. Scott removed nearly two pounds of fibroids from the fundal (bottom) side of my uterus. (I did say reader discretion, right?) Two pounds...that's two big blocks of butter worth - a bit of a shock, even to my surgeon.

So what is the state of Planet Andrea, post surgery? While physically my recovery has gone heavenly well, emotionally there's been some Sturm and Drang (cue the Wagner please.) But I've found some inner peace I think, at least enough that I can compile a coherent Top 3 Personal musings-for-the-moment, for what they are worth.

(1)"Yes to All" was a good decision.

You may recall I had difficulty deciding whether to have surgery or not - the coin kept landing on its edge. In the end I decided to say yes to everything that seemed like a step forward. I said yes to acupuncture and yes to surgery. I decided yes to continuing to try to conceive and yes to beginning adoption.

When Dr. Scott opened me up, they found more fibroids in me than detected by ultrasound, a lot more. The surgery took twice as long as planned and in recovery I was given both units of blood I'd donated previously for that purpose. As she described what she saw in the operating room, Dr. Scott was succinct "I can't see how a pregnancy would have...it was good you had them (the fibroids) out first."

My lesson affirmed? Sometimes the answer to 'how' really is 'yes.' Especially when you're really stuck deciding on something, see if 'yes to all' is an answer that works.

(2) It's never too late to make friends with mom.

At the top of the list of gifts during my time off was this: In my second week of recovery, mom came to stay. Surprise, she didn't force me to endure humiliating sponge baths and increasingly shrill "mother-who-was-a-nurse-and-sees-her-chance" lectures. Instead she made me laugh altogether too much having just had staples removed. She made congee and helped me remember Taiwanese things in the kitchen, and when she left, I was sad.

My general musing on this? Physically, things can get 'stuck' for a reason. What's the real reason something (anything is happening) in your body?

"I wonder if there's something I'm not hearing." - Thomas Leonard, on the 4th day of an ear infection

Maybe, just maybe, the body really is a printout of the mind. Maybe my stuck spots with my mom were removed when my fibroids were removed. Or my fibroids were removed successfully because I'd decided to move from resistance to my mom to...acceptance (with boundaries.) It may even be that I'm ready to be a mom now, having found a new respect for mine. [Oh yes I do hear you nodding.]

(3) There's more to doing 'nothing' than meets the eye.

I've discovered that six weeks off has a way of changing you permanently no matter what. My thoughts are flowing differently, my life-pace has a different rhythm. I'm clearer about what's important to continue to do with my days and minutes, and more open to having no idea what's supposed to happen long term.

Suggestion: When you next have a physical change-up in your life (big or small) try to see it as a milestone of some sort. Perhaps even a ritual. Allow it to create space in your life - that may be a big part of why the physical thing is in your life! [Will someone please tell a joke about how a headache after meeting with a particular person is a hint - not for you to take an aspirin, but to remove that person from your life? ]

For me, the experience of having surgery has definitely been a life decluttering on a massive scale. I'm grateful to everyone around me who've given the biggest gift ever: the space and freedom to not know, do nothing, experiment, and evolve. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So....more musings as they unfold, woven into less personal posts than this. :-) One thing's for sure - there's lots of fun activity ahead. New self-published books. Very possibly a mainstream published book or three, with accompanying businesses to back those up. More conversation about what's next, opening the box, breaking the box and telling the truth. Oh and intellectual property, things that may make you think and/or laugh - and much less now on nuts and bolts re: multiple streams.

I hope you'll stick around, apply what's useful, and join me in throwing out whatever's not!! :-)

[Photo: My dear husband Mike, mom and I on my 2-weeks-post-surgery celebration dinner at the Broken Plate in Calgary. Underneath the bright exterior, I'm celebrating my first scar, a 7-incher. Is this what it feels like to be a piggy bank? I have new empathy for stuffed toys with their tag's torn off...]

A quickie invitation for you today, to a useful open call about Real Estate with my very own Real Estate Coach!

If you've always 'wondered' what Real Estate could mean to you, your business and your life, here's a chance to stop procrastinating and learn more in a no-pressure safe environment.

The call description is below with a registration link. Just remember it's an Open House call so there is no charge. I hope you choose to join in - I could think of no better person to introduce to you for real estate wisdom than my personal investment coach. And no worries - you can be ready this very minute to begin investing OR you can be just curious. Everyone's welcome.

===========================================================
"Making Real Estate Real" Open House Call with Investment Coach Cassandra White
===========================================================
sponsored by Andrea J. Lee of 'Money, Meaning and Beyond'

If you had $25,000 or more to invest right now, would you know what to do? If you knew real estate was where you'd like to put your money, what would be your next step?

As conscious business owners, not all of your hard-earned money need be reinvested back into your business. At a certain point in your business life cycle, real estate investment makes real sense, and that's just what Andrea and her husband Mike have been doing the last 4 years.

Now with four properties, some of which have appreciated over 50%, and looking at a fifth, Andrea credits her latest mindset shift to her investment coach Cassandra, who at the age of 33 now juggles joint ventures and investments for over 25 properties.

How does she do it and what does she advise? "Everyone with a little determination and creative thinking can do the same as me." "You don't have to start out with a ton of money." The great thing is, there are real investment opportunities available today, for investors who are ready to make the leap.

Join this one hour Open House call to learn about specific opportunities to pursue real estate coaching with Cassandra if the time is right for you.

Or, if you're new to this topic, register at the link below to hear Andrea interview Cassandra about how to get started, and generally get her to demystify the whole real estate game. You're right, you could pay thousands
of dollars to attend real estate training seminars to do the same thing.

But why not save those dollars and put them into the investment properties themselves instead?

There's no charge for the call - it's our way of opening up this conversation in the community. Just help us spread the word by forwarding this invitation, alright?

From Thursday June 14, 2007 | Audio Recording UPDATED WITH CORRECT AUDIO 6.22.07

Use the player below to listen to the audio recording from this call:

There were a lot of things we couldn't do 40 years ago, and I don't just mean call someone on a cell phone in the middle of a rainforest. 40 years ago today, I, a Taiwanese woman, would not have been able to marry Mike, my Irish/Scottish husband, at least in the US. To do so would have been illegal and real people served time in prison for this offense.

Of course, there are still certain types of marriages that are considered illegal.

It's Loving Day today, the 40-year anniversary of the date the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in the United States.

Personally speaking, having been married in 1995 in Canada, Mike and I didn't have to battle a legal system to express our love through marriage, though we did have to manage a little family disapproval. And we do face societal judgements on a daily basis. It's not a huge dynamic in our lives and I'm not about to share any horrible racism stories. But it does get interesting from time to time when we discuss what school our multi-racial children might attend, in what neighbourhood.

In fact, I rather enjoy the fact that we've 'loved against the odds.' It's gritty and sweetens our relationship in a special way that I think is true of all couples that have this 'forbidden-esque' element.

Call me biased, but I think it's in the 'mixing' of anything that creates some of most of the interesting things in life. And where many great business ideas come from. Take....peanut butter cups as just one example. I for one can't imagine life without interracial marriages, peanut butter cups and a whole host of other combinations! Call it my propensity for divergent thought. ;-)

New combinations force us to:

- look at things with fresh eyes - new lenses through which to see
- review our assumptions and throw out the ones that no longer hold
- make room in the box in our head that maintains the status quo
- adapt and expand the conversation as new possibilities show up

In business, new combinations give rise to demand for services that don't yet exist. Then, the opportunity to supply that demand must be met. New Demand + No Supply = Huge Business Opportunity. Suffice to say - new combinations of existing things are elixir in the business world - markets love them, the majority of the time.

What's something you as a business owner love, that you think has nothing to do with your business?

What's a hobby or vocation that you dally in 'outside' of your business sphere?

What if you married those things in a new combination and in doing so give birth to a new demand in the marketplace?

It's been done before:

- Love of skateboarding + Ski School = Snowboarding
- Love of dogs + Childcare = Doggy Daycare
- Love of horses + Executive Coaching = Equine Assisted Leadership Training

What about:

- Romance Novels + Self-Help Books = Motivational Reading that you get aroused to and thus anchor your growth
- Coaching + Video Games = Situational Coaching in Real-Time Environments Via Computer

- Your example here?

Exercise: Describe a project you're working on, or your business as a whole, and then add the words 'and a frog.'

Examples: I train virtual assistants and a frog. My target market is lawyers in the state of Virginia and a frog. I write flash fiction, edit grant applications, write a blog and a frog.

Adding 'and a frog' helps exercise your 'that's ridiculous' muscle so that you start to see slightly ridiculous combinations in a different light. If you do this enough you can start to see ridiculous things as almost normal. Everything and a frog start to become regular - except that the people around you haven't done the 'and a frog' exercise so you become the most creative person among all your friends. :-)

The questions Loving Day make me ask go along these lines:

"Do I care about anything enough that I'd fight for the right to express it?"

"What do I love so much that I'd allow myself to be banished from my home for 25 years and go to court to fight for my right to love?"

Because that's exactly what Mildred Jeter (black) and Richard Loving (white) did from 1958 to 1967 and that's what Loving Day commemorates. Read the full story here.

Who knows what acknowledging and accepting new combinations of things is preparing us for...

Who knows what asserting ourselves for our deepest desires is creating in the world, really...

In a world where there's very little new under the sun, I raise a glass to embracing new combinations of things.

Got a multiracial friend or inter-racially-married couple in your life? Send them to this resource page from the official Loving Day website. Ipride.org is especially cool.

Happy Loving Day everyone!

It's my birthday today. I'm 37.

Sign of aging: I was writing a check to my personal trainer today - I thought that was nice symbolism - writing a check for something so healthy on my birthday.

Only thing was, I dated it June 2, 1970 - 37 years ago, and then I had to cross it out and initial it. Think she'll think that's funny? Probably not if the back sends it back as -- what's the word for an old check that's past it's 'cash by' date? Hmm.

Also saw the movie "Away From Her" an absolutely, amazingly, tremendous film. Not only in its unabashed un-Hollywoodness, but in everything from the acting, the setting, the script, and the topic. A heroic movie by first-time director Sarah Polley.

If you've ever wanted to really see and feel what it's like to live in Canada outside the big cities, this is the film to watch. And boy if I needed something to help me remember how really truly lovely my life is, this was also the perfect film.

Thanks for all the well wishes today. The cards, telephone calls and gifts! My wish for the day is that you wish yourself a FABULOUS day too - because you know what, I believe we're all heroes somehow and we don't celebrate that often enough. Happy day to all of us!

With apologies to Byron Katie's important 'Work,' I've been using the phrase Unwork quite a bit lately to help foster the premise that working hard is NOT the way to riches or happiness.

For some people working hard is a license to feel justified about complaining. Or feeling self-important.

For others it's a way to pull the wool over their eyes about the fact they aren't succeeding - they're doing everything they can, aren't they? Exhaustion is the proof of this statement. It can't be their fault because they're trying so very hard.

Still others are subconsciously using hard work as a way to avoid something. Could it be fear of success? or almost any other fear/feeling?

I've been exposed to enough variations on the theme of hard work that I feel I can say with confidence:

The message "Work hard and you'll be rewarded" is MOST useful to people in authority (teachers, parents, church leaders, politicians, etc.) Tired people (adults and children) are less likely to act up.

What I know for sure is that it takes a certain amount of guts to think about Unworking. Hard work is a potent anesthetic that like any addiction numbs us to life. Time to wake up.

Let me be clear that Unwork isn't about being lazy. And it isn't some fancy way of talking about delegation or time management either. I hate to say it's a kind of 'consciousness' as that's just too floofy for many people to care about, but it is in fact what it is. And...there are specifics that can help you start 'doing' unwork in a concrete way so this isn't all just ethereal stuff.

Register for the no-fee Open House TeleSeminar on Unwork (post coming soon) if you'd prefer a more interactive version of this. But here are my notes in response to those of you who don't want to wait. ;) Remember - Suzanne Falter-Barns is spearheading the call so I'm sure she'll have much to contribute on her end too.

Or, check out the radio show Pam Slim did with me on 'Taking the Struggle out of building your business' over at VoiceAmericaBusiness. You can download the program here.

Now here are my notes on just what Unwork is and how you can start integrating some...

(1) What does Unwork mean?

The first step to understanding the concept of Unwork is noticing that for everything you do, there is a hard way and an easy way. Whether it's picking a photograph at IstockPhoto to illustrate your blog post; putting together your new TV stand or making ends meet this month, there IS a hard way to reach your goal. Perhaps it's the road you're most used to taking.

So the best way to help connect you with the concept of Unwork is to ask you to assume with me there IS an easier way to what you are doing. So pick a challenge you're working on this week. Or a long-standing obstacle in your life. My assumption is going to be that there is an easier way. If you were to play along, what comes up?

This is about practice because letting go of the habit of thinking life has to be hard isn't going to be an overnight thing. So practice challenging yourself. Gradually your way of 'being' in your business will become less onerous.

Just start with one thing. Go ahead, you can think of one thing that you're annoyed at that feels terribly hard...what is it?

Unwork = noun. Definition = a contrarian idea that for everything human beings seek to do or achieve in life there is a hard way and an easy way or unwork way. Especially applicable in entrepreneurial settings.

(2) What might be a useful metaphor that conveys the sensibility of Unwork?

Unwork can feel like a foreign concept the first time you hear it so I like to use metaphors to help us get intuitive about it. Here are two:

Metaphor #1: If you were hanging a calendar on your wall, you wouldn't go to the basement to get your power tool, right? Yet so many of us in our daily 'to dos' are doing just that - using a power tool to put in a tack.

We might be spending way too much time to complete something...or doing a menial task at the time of day when our brains are most creative...whatever it is, there is an ineffective use of energy to accomplish the task in front of us...using a power tool on a tack when just your thumb would do the trick.

How are you burning out a power tool doing something little in your business?

Is it possible you're giving a long lecture to your teenager when a small curfew reminder would do the trick?

Metaphor #2: The Sun and the Wind fable, excerpted from the book 'Money, Meaning & Beyond' and previously posted here.

Okay, I lied. There is another very colourful and slightly PG-13 metaphor that illustrates Unwork to a 'T'. I think it's the MOST effective metaphor there is for some people but I'm not going to post it here. I'm being a little coy here alright? Okay maybe a little chicken too. :-) So if you'd like me to post it I will, but encourage me a little would you? I'm not a prude (especially in 1-on-1 coaching sessions) but I'm still not sure how colourful to be here...

(3) What are some recent examples of how you apply Unwork in your life?

Example #1: After being self-employed nearly 10 years, I know there are two major activities that consistently generate income. For me, these are speaking and writing; they may be different for you. But speaking takes a proportionately HUGE amount of my time, effort, patience from husband and family, etc. in order to do. Not to mention health and other environmental costs.

By contrast, writing takes up much fewer resources and - important - does almost as good a job generating business as speaking does.

Unwork decision I made? Speak even less frequently than I do now, and make every speaking engagement really count. Net result: I have much more energy and time to spend writing. Ultimately this gives me better results (more money) for less work over the course of the year - exactly what was proven when I visited my accountant last week - gross income increased only 10-20% last year, but we had about the same amount of expenses and both partners worked about 40% less. That's a great raise as a result of unwork.

Example #2: Here's a smaller example.

When searching for a great photo to illustrate a blog post, I discovered a friend who was looking and looking on IstockPhoto. We all do the equivalent of something like this - go through all the bids on Elance for example, or researching an additional hour when you've already found a good link.

What if you were to stop? Meaning, stop when you find the first useable photo? When you find a decent bid on Elance that meets all your criteria?

We spend a lot of time looking for what could possibly might be a slightly better answer. But all the while we already have a serviceable solution.

Does this apply to you? If you haven't been able to think of a place to concretely apply Unwork, this should help. Make a list of things you work unnecessarily hard at now and practice letting your work go.

Insert a food-related Andrea-ism here: Like trimming the fat off the steak before you barbeque, you can trim wasted energy off many of your daily tasks, if only you start thinking the Unwork Way.

Remember...Hope is not a strategy. Neither is hard work.

In conclusion...do you know the saying 'work smart, not hard?' I don't know who said it originally but I have a huge dislike for it. Why? I just don't think it's a useful phrase when it comes to implementation.

The phrase 'work SMART' has the exact opposite effect...in fact already-smart people are the ones who are most guilty of working too hard in their businesses. Their try to 'smart' their way out of problems when simplicity would be better. Since smartness already gets them in trouble, more smart thinking isn't going to make things better.

So I say dare to be different. Embrace unwork instead by picking a few clear action steps that lesson what you do in order to get a result, today. Now that you understand just what Unwork is about...you have no excuses!

Now off to choose a photo for this post, or not. ;-)

What is it like to be Taiwanese? I challenged myself to express this, and this and the next post are the result.

Although strictly speaking a personal exploration unrelated to meaning or money - I found it meaningful to ask 'Who am I?' from a more historical perspective, and I wonder if you would too. The book 'Finding Oprah's Roots' has an interesting thesis - that each of us is here as a direct result of the actions and lives of each of our ancestors.

So a possibly useful question becomes - in what way did Grandma live her life for me? Where does the relevance of my grandpa's collaboration with the Japanese? Could that be connected with my own itinerant wanderings in Japan, working and connecting with my future-husband?

And how does this line of questioning impact my business? Does it? If it does, how?

The exercise of expressing what it's like to be Taiwanese gave me a sense of belonging that's different from attaching to a tribe. It gave me a palpable connection to a thread of time instead.

'Ancestors' is a word that figures largely in the bringing up of a young Asian girl - respect your ancestors - kneel before your elders - burn money for your ancestors to spend in the afterlife. I have likely avoided contemplating the word too deeply as a result.

But the below is a small (sour?) start at a different approach. What do you think of these two personal Taiwanese vignettes? How are some of your own 'historical' stories worth excavating even if not in public?

Begin 'A Single Umeboshi'...

My mother once told me this story with a small smile and twinkle in her eye. I wasn't fooled, I think it actually happened.

"You know AnZe*, when we were small, sometimes we only had rice to eat, and a single umeboshi** in the middle, that was all.

And then sometimes, when we didn't have any umeboshi, we would just draw an umeboshi instead, and eat like that."

*My English name is Andrea, but of course my mom would use my Chinese name, AnZe (peaceful philosopher), or Zui-ah (Taiwanese nickname) when telling stories like this. 

**Equivalent to a pickle in Western culture, umeboshi are very salty, very sour pickled plums, originally from Japan and popular also in Taiwan. 

Usually eaten with rice just as Mom described it, a single umeboshi is still often served in the middle of a lunchbox to recreate the look of the Japanese flag. 

Of course, because they really are incredibly sour, just ask anyone who's familiar with them.  It doesn't matter if you've swallowed your last bite of Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings... should your mind call up the thought of an umeboshi, your mouth will immediately flood with saliva. 

There's absolutely no stopping it, even as I write.  All the better to eat plain rice with, right Mom?

This little story of the single umeboshi seems to me to encapsulate so much about being Taiwanese, and a Taiwanese point of view.

Aside: This is the second of two vignettes on the topic of what it's like to be Taiwanese. Read the first one here.

"Mom, why is Grandad walking round and round the cherry trees again?"

Actually, that was my inside voice. I didn't ask out loud, because like many, good Taiwanese children are supposed to be quiet.  Something to do with how many people live on such a small island*, I think.

But I did ask it inside my head over the next few weeks, because Grandad kept circling around, shaking and peering up at the cherry trees beside our house, happily anticipating something.

Little did I know then that plum blossoms, not cherry, have a special place in the Taiwanese heart because they bloom with the winter snow and do best when seemingly overlooked.  Improbably, the colder the winter, the more beautiful the blossoms, or so the stories go.

In other words plum blossoms thrive under adversity and are all the more beloved for their resilience.

Grandad wasn't thinking of resilience though. 

After some thought he sawed off one of the straightest, thickest branches of the tallest cherry tree.  Filled with purpose, he set the saw at just a certain angle and when he was done he painted the cut ends with something black.

Then came the hours of polishing, first with his bare hands, then with a small rag and oil from the kitchen to shine it up.  Trimming the thin tip of the branch came next, with much measuring and testing, balancing and banging the branch into the ground. 

And all of a sudden, I saw that it was a walking stick.

My grandad's been gone for a long time now.  But the lesson of the walking stick was the same as the lesson of empty eggshells turned upside down in all of our houseplants (what a pain to water!) 

It was the same lesson as the two grains of uncooked rice stuck under a band-aid, used on an acupressure point to relieve a headache.   

In fact it was the same lesson as the 40-year old suit my Dad loves saying 'still fits' and the pair of shoes my mom says have been reheeled and re-leathered so many times, it's not fair to call them the same old great pair of shoes.  But Dad gets such joy from admiring "such good quality, can you believe they've lasted so long?!"

Living in Canada as we were at the time, surely there was a multitude of walking sticks to choose from in a shopping mall nearby.  But that's not the Taiwanese way. 

The Taiwanese way is to take pleasure adding value, or even better, finding value in places you might not normally look.

The Taiwanese way is to accomplish a lot with unexpectedly little (make something from nothing.) To use everything at hand to make life better.  To find a bargain or perfect fit for a missing piece.

Taiwanese find it fun to make something work, especially when it seems like it shouldn't and everyone else has given up.

For better or worse, Taiwan is about surviving and thriving, against the odds.  I guess that's a little like the plum blossom.

----------------------------

*Taiwan has a population of about 23 million (c. 2005) living in about 32,000 square kilometers of land.  That's about 70% of the population of all of Canada, in a land area the size of Vancouver island, slightly smaller than the combined area of Maryland and Delaware.

**This above painting of plum blossoms hangs in my office where I write. You can find it, and other Taiwanese and Asian art, here.