天地在我心 | Sky & Earth Within My Heart

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(rescued from old deviantART account)

"Lines on your face."

"Hm?"

"Is that what makes you old?" asked Eirendi.

"Quite the contrary; it is being old that puts the lines on one's face," Haolan chuckled.

"Then what makes you old, Grandfather?"

"Do you know what old means, Eiri?"

She shook her head.

"It simply means that one has been around for a long time."

"Well, that doesn't explain anything."

"No, it doesn't," the doctor admitted. "Not much."

"But then...you aren't old at all, Grandfather!" Eirendi beamed. "You haven't been around very long."

The old man laughed so that the afternoon sun bounced on his bald crown, and the sparse gray of his beard and whiskers and eyebrows quivered with mirth.

"No indeed, dear child. But I daresay I do have a few years on you."



A salty wind from the southern sea
Up hill country it blew
The rain had scarcely touched the lea
When up sprang the bamboo!

Strings twanging as the gourd-curved body of the vielle thumped against her back, the gypsy

"To speak truthfully, spirits are no more than ordinary people, only with stouter hearts. There's no such thing as a true 'spirit'. I am just a peacemaking, jesting old man."
  — Tai Yi of the Golden Cave, from NeZha Riots the Seas (1979 Chinese Animation) as subtitled by Laitma

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Where does sand dance?

In water, where it rolls to shore, where sea meets land, where land embraces lake, where river runs between banks.

In the air, where sun beats down on desert, where winds shift massive dunes, where storms swirl blindingly without warning, and people—cities—everything can vanish without a trace.

Where does sand dance? In celebration. In the face of change.

The sister and the brother went on a journey that changed the face of the world forever.

They went to the places where water met land met nothing but air and light. They watched the sand dance, and one of them saw creation where the other saw erosion. So, this is how the earth makes itself anew. So, this is how the world ages.

Look, sister, look at this sand. Look, brother, we will be gone one day. Time will take us away.

She lifted her eyes and saw the rolling sun and the pendant moon.

If nothing in the sky moved, time would stop.