I discovered this pagoda at Martyr's Park near my home. For 5 RMB ($0.75 USD) a woman will bring you loose leaf tea and an endless supply of hot water. I sat for hours people watching and drinking tea. This place is awesome.

China is full of poems and proverbs. Everywhere I go I see poetry, from a mistranslated T-shirt, to the slogan of a store, to my students trying to explain something in English. About a month into being here I started to play a game where I would send a question out into the universe and then trust the answer would be somewhere in the found poetry. For example, the week before I started teaching I asked "How am I going to handle teaching 700 students?" Within 15 minutes a teenager walked by with a shirt that said "COURAGE AND CONFIDENCE." Isn't that great? These kinds of "coincidences" happen to me all the time. Some answers are more obscure however. Lately I've been pondering whats next for me after my teaching contract is over. Do I return back to Utah to live and work? Do I find another position overseas? Volunteer with the Peace Corps? Teach/do photography? Pursue a masters degree? Sail around the world?
When I walked into class today, my students had this story written on the board (the English isn't perfect, give em a break):

A hunter, not very bold, was searching for the tracks of a lion. He asked a man felling oaks in the forest if he had seen any marks of his footsteps or know where his lair was. “I will,” said the man, “at once show you the Lion himself.” The Hunter, turning very pale, and chattering his teeth from fear replied, “No thank you. I did not ask that. It is his tracks I am in search of, not the Lion himself."

What do you think it means?

I think this happens to all of us. We're on the trail, hunting for opportunity or happiness or love. We get content with the search, with "something missing." But when what we're searching for presents itself, we get scared, we back down. We say no to the one thing we've been searching for! I believe what we fear the most, is the thing that we most want. If you're going to call yourself a hunter, you better be ready to face the Lion! This doesn't mean you won't be afraid. It just means that even if your teeth are chattering and you're trembling in your boots, you'll still face that Lion heads on. Say yes! The worst thing that will happen is you may finally get what you've always been searching for.

How does this apply to my search for whats next? I'm not quite sure. All I can guarantee is I won't let fear dictate my path.

I challenge you to do the same. :)