溫柔的堅持 To Be Gently Persistent

I  

Years ago, these are words from a quite wonderful friend of mine upon analyzing my service work towards the others, as well as my contrast with my then college students from different universities who went with me to those different places in the world that are too poor. 

壹

多年前，這些字眼是一位相當睿智的友人所言，當時其在談的是將其中一個描述放在我的身上、另一個描述放在那些與我至國外各地偏鄉服務的各大專院校學生們身上。

我始終沒有弄懂當時友人用哪個來描繪我個人，又用哪個來表述那些大專學生們。

I never really figure out which one of them is for me, or which one of them is for my students, but those characters keep ringing in my mind--to persist gently versus to be continually gentle. 

然而，不論是「溫柔的堅持」，或者「堅持的溫柔」，這兩個描述，都是我所念茲在茲的。

They are both quite important to me, reminding me of whether the outside turbulences are, once I have that anchor situating inside, I can be both persistent and gentle, which never clash with one another. 

這兩種描述對我而言都非常重要的原因在於，不論外在的環境如何動盪不安，在我自己的心底有著堅持與溫柔這兩項特質的時候，我就可以無所畏懼，持續前行。

II  I met with a friend of mine who's such an excellent educator who're able to tech her students quite effectively. Her original professional field is music; added with her English ability, she is teaching some new courses nowadays in an elementary school where we sat down and chatted. 

貳  

和一位非常出色的教學夥伴相談甚歡，音樂背景出身的她，加上在英語上面的能力，目前所教授的課程範圍又更加不同。即始她是如此出色，在我們的話過程裡，她提到自己的成長背景、環境、條件等，使她變成一個缺乏信念的人。

「我一直發現自己沒有自信……也會不清楚自己的宗教裡面的一些盲點，該怎麼解決……」

接著她說：「我很希望自己可以早點退休，之後，我希望可以弄清楚一些自己原本不清楚的事情。」

The topics we covered were many. At one point, she told me certain things about how her background and family influence have both made her a person without too much self-esteem to this day. She has shared with me her struggles to identify herself in her faith and she is looking forward to her retirement in the days to come so she will be able to learn new things she's not familiar with. 

After seeing her, I came up with thses words and this creation, in which I am trying to reveal the fact that each and every of us has burdens to be carried. To me, I feel extremely fortunate that I am able to shift people's burdens from time to time. (Characters inside this calligraphy work mean that we can be bounded by those old troubles of ours, and that we all would like to have the wisdom to be away from those disturbing moments.)

和她的一場相逢，促使了這樣一幅書法作品的誕生。

在這樣的作品中我所想表達的也是自己最高的喜悅--那就是一種將人們的壓力移轉的能力和動力。

參

「妳的身材就是我們的標竿，所以每次妳說我們美，我們才覺得妳是最美的!!!」幾位非常良善的同事在下班時間與我道別之時，在不同的時間點如此說到。

III 

"The way your figure is would be what we are looking for, like a role model. Whenever you crown us as being pretty, we all consider you're the most charming!"Several colleagues of mine told me so at different moments around the time we finished our work for the day. 

謝過這些熱情的同事進到教室後，一群過去教過的學生尾隨而至，與我閒話家常，他們自己審視著他們過去使用過的教室，裡面仍保有他們曾經寫過和畫過的作品，他們興奮而嘰嘰喳喳的聲音不絕於耳。

After thanking these colleauges of mine wholeheartedly, I was followed by quite a few students back to the classroom where I'm teaching now. These students are the ones raught by me in the previous schoolyear. Once they are inside their "old" classroom again, they're merry to see their works written or drawn in the past are still intact somewhere here and there inside the same space where they used to learn. 

「哇! 怎麼這麼多人來找泡芙(Hope)老師啊?! 好熱鬧哦!」一個學生這樣說……

"WOW~~~ So many of us are here visiting Miss Hope." One student remarked. 

 

我想著這許許多多在人間處處的遭逢，除了倍感溫馨，也感受到上天對我的眷顧如是。

並且我篤信，上天想必也讓更多人間的人們及物種，一樣受到了眷顧。

When I think of all these different moments of wonders in my life, I understand how blessed I am; meanwhile, I trust that there must be so many people and species well taken care of by the Universe or the Creator(s).