Diary of My Country Life-March 12th, 2026

The original source of this blog: https://www.lotusandmichael.com/blogs/diary-of-my-country-life

03/12/2026 Thursday 33-65F Rain

Last three days we had very warm weather, up to 70ish F, and it was sunny. I took out my comforters almost every day to air, and finally my futon got a very good sunbath as well. I watered the plants, pruned some branches, swept the patios, and chopped the wood which had been piled on the grass for nearly two months. At last, my yard looked sparkling and fresh; we enjoyed our outdoor life as much as possible by having coffee and dinners in the courtyard, and we grilled a duck. 

Since this morning, the temperature started to drop. I accept it—we just can’t have warm and sunny days forever so having some cold and rains is totally expected. Now I have finished my morning work and am sitting by the window, watching the rain. 

Last Saturday I took my voluntary shift as a host in an art center that was hosting some of my paintings, where I met an interesting person, James. He was the other host during my shift, who I had never met or heard about before. Obviously, we both didn’t expect much about our co-worker, so he took his sketch book in his pickup while I had my “Anna Karenina” in my basket--so if the visitors were few and we found we had no topics to share with each other, he could sketch and I could read. But strangely, once we begun to talk, starting from his painting which was hanging right next to our desk, we couldn’t stop. 

One of his works was a beautiful painting, about four ballet girls preparing for their stage moment. From the right top of the painting, the curtain was drawn and the yellow light was flashing on their blue skirts. One girl was bending toward her two coworkers to interact with them, while the fourth dancer was checking on her garment. To me, it’s about the colors, blue, yellow and maroon; and the light, brightness and shadows. Among all his four paintings hanging on the wall, I liked this one the most. 

After checking his other three paintings, swans, purple flowers, and sunflowers, I told him: “I think your paintings are about a kind of delicate, exquisite beauty with bright colors.” Perhaps my comment was a little partial since later on he told me other than portraits and figures, he also did landscape. But anyway, my comment became the start of our conversation.

Generally, he was a man of few words. From his appearance, big and tall, and drove a large pickup, it was hard for people to connect him with an artist, a self-taught one because engineer was his profession. What impressed me the most was that he said he got up at three ‘clock every day, spent one hour sketching (with watercolor), then the following two hours in gym exercising. These three hours completely belonged to him and he was in his own world. After that he devoted the rest of his day to his work and his family. 

Three o’clock in the morning, and every day! I hardly can imagine that a big man like him, living in a farm, well-off, sitting by the lights and sketching. He showed me his sketch book, pages and pages of people’s faces, men and women, old and young; they were all well-captured and vividly expressed. While comparing to him, when did I do my last painting prior to the end of last August? At least several months before. Yes, I indeed kept painting every week since then, one or two paintings a week. But I wasn’t as determined as he was—with all the stresses from life, he purposely chose to keep a wonderland in his soul; while I, with my husband carrying most of the weights, I could go onto my journey lightly packed yet sometimes I still complained.

We also shared some thoughts and pressures in our daily lives. He mentioned that once before his daughter was confused about her life, basically about what she had to choose and what she loved to choose. Then he said: “My advice to her was: ‘Both spiders and lions get their food.’ What does that mean? The spiders set the web then wait for their food to come; while the lions go out to hunt.”

He was a wise man, reliable and a doer. How many people of those we know but in fact how much we really know about them? I always believe that every soul is different, and every soul reserves some sort of interest which rarely can be seen by others. Sometimes the door of the soul is locked so others get no chance to know it; sometimes the door is open, we pass by without peeking into it so we miss it.

That soul can be our family members, can be our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, and can be everyone we see on the street. Never judge a book by its cover.

A neighborhood meeting was held in my house this Tuesday evening. During the meet, people discussed about the actions that the local government was planning to take to control the numbers of wildlife such as deer. We do have a good amount of wildlife in this area, and based on what the mayor said, if we don’t control the numbers, bear may come.

Think about killing the deer, the cute, innocent creatures especially the little ones with white dots all over their bodies, I feel heart broken. I am not a typical animal protector; we grilled venison which we purchased online and I loved it. I just simply think that every animal, every species has the right to live on this planet and share the environment with us. We are not the only children that God favors, in fact every life, including plants, is. I know I am annoyed when deer eat my plants; but if I have to choose between killing them and allowing them to nibble on my plants, I choose the latter. However, having bears in towns is dangerous; plenty of prey indeed will attract predators. So how to balance Nature and urbanization, balance the relationships of being wildlife’s friend or enemy, are a tough mission.