How are you? I do hope that everything is doing well with you and you are enjoying a new week.

I did not write last weekend for the doctors had a new small operation for me on Wednesday because some indexes have been in the danger to lead a cancer since they were found August, 2010. They hoped the surgery would help me to cut down the possibility.

Even though I have had 6 different surgeries since Dec, 2009 already, my health in physical has not been recovered as well as my doctors wished yet, my spirit is still positive and optimistic.

Just like I have told you indirectly in my last letter:

-- When so many ideal gates have been opened for me, my health is blocking me to go inside and I am still fighting with the sickness every day.

-- When I have many good opportunities to enjoy the latter part of my life in some beautiful places by the sea or the lake, I do have another choices to live a hard life as a student, to learn to become a true artist, to help more people in the world.

Since time will not wait for me, instead of staying in the sick bed, as soon as I could stand up, I kept doing something I must do.

Now I have made my choices:

-- As long as my surgery doctors basically agree with me (I know they would never agree 100%), I will go to share my combined arts of bilingual languages, painting and music with a few groups of Chinese teachers in USA, to listen to their comments, suggestions and advices, to know about the need of the local people, to improve the quality of the languages in my exploration.

-- As long as I can read and paint, I will not stop to study and to work. I will go to the graduate school of Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing, to study and to improve my painting and music quality in my combined art exploration by the high level professional directions.

-- After I complete the study for another 1 to 3 years (rely on my health), I would like to do 2 things in whole of my rest life.

One is to help Chinese teen-agers to learn Arts of painting, language and music with what I have learned in the poor or disaster areas of China. The first thing I did was I have donated some of my paintings to the China Social Assistance Foundation with my classmates in China Central Academy of Fine Arts together.

The other is to help Western teen-agers and the people who are interested in Chinese culture to learn Chinese arts and cultures. I have started my first step by the good directions, help and support of Missouri State University, the Springfield Regional Arts Council and the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce of Missouri, USA in 2009 and in 2010.

I would really like to go on the quite hard but very enjoyable art road continuously, to help more people while to improve myself until the end of my life.

May be I have made a foolish choice, may be I will change my idea some day, but, right now, I am feeling good in my heart even though I can feel some ache on my body.

Sometimes, I do feel that the enjoyment in the spirit field may be the best and the happiest things in the world. In this sense, even though I am not sure whether I should choose to be a nun some day, to offer my little abilities and much love to a larger world and more people with a purer feeling yet, I have been remembering and attracting by the beautiful expressions in the eyes of the nuns in a big square in Vatican and in Rome, Italy in a small rain in 2000. :-)

How do you think of my choices? Do you think I am a foolish woman? Do you think I should become a nun some day? Do you have anything special to share?

Take care and thanks, have a good new week,

Shirley
August 29, 2011