The Gita in the Apricot Woods

"All's well that ends well!" ~English Proverb

水頭不如水尾 ~台語諺語

I walked fast in order to be the first to reach the destination. A mini bus passed by, stopped, to my surprise. The bus driver kindly asked me if I needed a lift to the Taipei City Zoo. I thanked him for his good heart and kept walking ahead. The passengers looked at me in awe, wondering where I was heading in the middle of mountains.

The phone rang. It's from Toastmaster Lydia Lin. "Sherry, the bus driver told us that we were in the opposite direction, the apricot woods are in the other side", Lydia said, "we could walk no more, we would just stand here and wait for the next bus back to MRT Mao-kong station."

I continued my walking till I saw a bus stop. I checked the bus schedule, it ran every hour. The next bus wouldn't arrive till one hour later. I walked back to join Kate, Linda, and Lydia. "What are we supposed to do now in the middle of nowhere", Kate complained, "I can't walk two kilometers back to the Mao-kong station with my empty stomach. On top of that, my knees are killing me to death".

"Yes, let's hitchhike", I proposed. A car passed us in a swift without even speeding down. "Where has all the world-known Taiwanese kindness gone," I grumbled, "the downturn spiral of the economy must have drained the fountain of wisdom and faith in people on this island!"

No sooner than later, had Lydia made the magic. A car stopped and the driver made a U turn to offer us a ride. It was a middle-aged monk who was just transferred to a sanctuary in Mao-kong two years ago. He was on his way back to the head temple near the Taipei Main Station. I felt the reluctance in his heart whether to stop when he saw four flowery middle-aged women wave hands along the country road desperately. I admired his courage to let the nature take its course! He saw the people in need and he offered his hands!

"Amitabha!" I shouted in joy. Four of us got in the car as soon as we could. God must have answered our prayers. How fortunate we were to receive the blessing from a stranger, a devout monk who changed his course to lead four ladies at lost to the right destination.

I was nominated to sit in front by three friendly ladies and was overwhelmed to be surrounded by four religious people, one Buddhist monk and three Christian ladies. "Allelujah!", the monk rejoiced when he knew that three ladies sat at the back seats were Christian. "Pray to Allah", I echoed, as I had recently been voracious in reading books about the of the clash of Islamic and Catholic faith in the late Ottoman Empire.

The kind offer from the Buddhist monk somehow reminded me of Mohandas Gandhi who often recited Bhagavad Gita (博伽梵歌) at the spiritual evening gatherings in India in early 20th century. The Bhagavad Gita, also called The Song of the Lord, is about a conversation between Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and Ajuna, an army general. I asked the kind monk if he could recite the Gita, he told me it was too long for him to recite.

In less than ten minutes, we arrived at the MRT Mao-kong station, we thanked the monk for his precious time. After a satisfying lunch of chicken and vegetables proposed by Linda at a restaurant near Kao-kong station, we ventured to the apricot woods to enjoy the apricot blossom on foot. Lydia tried to hitchhike successfully for the second time. In one day, she made two attempts of hitchhike with success in metropolitan Taipei. It's not only her charm on the face, but also her willing to serve God in her heart, sang the Gita in apricot woods.

How time flies! It has been five years since four golden ladies last visited the apricot woods on March 19th, 2008. Who knows when golden ladies will venture to the apricot woods again in the future? No matter when, I shall certainly remember the generous ride offered by a friendly monk in 2013!