致谢

今天是我的生日。收到许多朋友的祝福，谢谢大家！

上个周末RayWei兄从DC来看我。 Ray 是一位很杰出的时尚摄影家 , 粉丝如云，获奖无数。我们神交已久，这还是第一次见面。前些日子云漫兄（云中漫步），一位杰出的风光摄影家，还有我的同学Michael，也是千里迢迢特意抽空赶来。感动万分。

没想到周日在和Ray的座谈会上，Ray和洛杉矶的摄友们为我庆祝生日。我收到了一张珍贵的贺卡，是朋友Lulu用从Lake Elsinore采集的野花压制而成，上有几十位好友的签名。《第五个季节 - 梦的季节》里的野花就是在Lake Elsinore拍的：

http://blog.wenxuecity.com/blogview.php?date=200903&postID=21509

当晚，半夜醒来，再也不能入睡，写下了下面几段话：

It is 2:16 AM. I woke up with sweat and cough. I woke up from a dream that all of us went hiking somewhere in the desert, a place not recognizable to me. We brought no cameras, were just out there taking a leisurely walk, smell, touch and feel the wilderness.

Thank you Ray Wei and 云漫 for coming all the way to see me. I am really touched beyond words and very sorry that I couldn’t spend more time with you. I am a true fan of your work.

Thank you, Dr. Shum for hosting the event and sharing your journey with us. While most of us are trying to be good at in just one area of photography, you excelled in many, landscape, people, macro and now infra-red among them. I truly admire your work; they are masterful, their expression exquisite and simply beautiful. Your charity work, your work with orphanages, says a lot about you as a person. You have set a great example for all of us to follow.

Thank you, The Wei brothers, my dear friends, for the beautiful birthday cake. It brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you, Christine, Lulu, Dr. Chen, Yuhong, Mike and all my fellow Cavers. I am simply in awe of your talents not only in photography, but also in literature, poetry, history and philosophy. I am honored to be associated with you and able to call you my friends.

What can I say about the birthday card? I absolutely loved it. It’s more beautiful than I can ever imagine. Thank you, Lulu, for your thoughtfulness and the precious time you spent in creating such an exquisite piece of art. Those delicate yellow flowers brought back sweet memories. Lake Elsinore has a special place in my heart and always will. I very well might have taken the last landscape photograph of my life in the beautiful wild flowers of Lake Elsinore.

Thank you LA_Mike, xianren558 and my friends from LA Photo Salon, WenxueCity （文学城） and all over the world, most of you I haven’t met and never will, for your outpouring love, support and encouragement. In a letter to a friend a few days ago I wrote that I am a rich man (not in financial or material terms of course) and therefore I am at peace.

Now back to the dream. I felt so fully alive, so exuberant in movement, so presenting leading up or down the trail. The rhythm of the walk, the swing of being in concert with oneself – lungs and legs, arms and heart is a part living wholly. It felt so good to the body and to the body’s mind. It was a joy just being around you!

Perhaps, just for once, we should force ourselves leave our cameras behind. Camera is a funny thing. Its viewfinder somehow curtails certain possibilities of seeing, apprehending and experiencing. Someone has said that what we human beings seek was not the meaning of life, but rather the experience of it. Next time when we camp under the stars in Joshua Tree or Racetrack, don’t rush our cameras out. But instead, let’s look deep into the space and listen, just listen and wait… Let’s feel the breeze gently blowing over our bodies. Let’s touch the rocks next to us and enjoy the calmness of the desert night. Yet, let’s still wait. ..Wait until our body and mind are in harmony with the desert, until nature and us unite as one. When that moment comes, my friend, I promise you, that is the best feeling of all.


Q园的朋友们，你们早已变成我生活的一部分，谢谢你们天天陪伴我！在我郁闷的时候你们给我欢笑。

谢谢！