Gratifying the Senses

Beauty is healing. I’m realizing that since being in Thailand. For our conference, we are staying up on a mountain outside of Chiang Mai. After six months of China city, I am in awe of the beauty.

All around I see green, open fields of luscious grass. It is February, and everything is lusciously green. I love all the trees: ancient, twisting, vine-covered trees, small trees exploding with bright orange flowers. In the background the tree-covered mountains rise gently in front of the clear skies. The sun rises brilliantly in the morning, and at night we can see whole constellations, not just an occasional token two stars.

It is February, but I hear birds singing outside. Not just one bird, but many different kinds of birds. At night I hear frogs croaking and crickets chirping peacefully. I miss frogs. The wind has no buildings to tear around so it just quietly rustles the leaves and carries them slowly to the ground.
Perhaps more noticeable is what I don’t hear…no horns and squeaky breaks, no yelling and slamming of doors, no loudspeaker music (although we do get our own Thai karaoke), no hacking up spit or clearing of nostrils. I can live without that.

The air is so clean and clear! When I breathe, I feel like I am helping my lungs instead of damaging them. Instead of Stinky River and raw sewage, I smell the flowers blooming all around. I’m serious – there really are beautiful, fragrant flowers blooming everywhere – in February. People even smell good, since they shower, use deodorant, and brush their teeth.

Sometimes I go barefoot, and underneath my feet I feel the scratchy grass or the hotel room carpet. I don’t get to do barefoot much…or ever. In my China apartment the concrete floors are too cold and outside you would probably catch some horrible communicable disease the instant your bare skin even thought about touching the ground. My pillow is deep and doesn’t collapse beneath my head. My mattress doesn’t leave bruises, like the plank-like China mattresses are known to do. It’s the little things that mean a lot, you know? And I can feel the sun and wind on my skin because they aren’t covered by four layers. I like that.

Finally, the tastes. Yeah, there have been some good tasting things going into my mouth lately. Ice cream. Real ice cream sundaes. Whole grain bread. Chocolate chip cookies. Strawberries. Salad. I really appreciate salad. If we just had some ranch dressing, that would be even better. The one disappointment is the coffee, which is pretty abysmal.

I don’t say all this to disparage China. There are unpleasantries about living there. It doesn’t always appeal to my aesthetic desires. But I am glad to live there and am even thinking of things I am looking forward to about returning. That says a lot, considering I am right now in tropical paradise. I am learning to love China, but I am grateful for a retreat into the beautiful.