The Trip towards Dream

It had been three days since we started our expedition. It was the fourth day, while we were in a valley located between northern and southern China. The road kept on ascending without any sign of a downward slope. Tramping over hill and dale no longer seemed to be a claim of courage but a bad omen, articulated by people with awe and resentment. We were cycling for nearly 6 hours this morning, on the ceaselessly upgrading road.
It began to rain when we struggled to keep our wheels circling. At that time, the long road dragged our 13-member team so that everyone became separate to each other. I circled after the dwindling form of my friend but I couldn’t see him clear, nor could I find where the girl behind me was.
With no hint the loneliness caught me again. I felt alien to my friends in this team gain. In this endless effort of trekking, the fear of falling behind, the hunger of rest and the real individually absorbed adventure, you could only rely on yourself while the very thing in need from your inner mind was someone’s accompany. That was a paradox. Everyone was tired to death with no more energy to cheer others up; meanwhile everyone was in need of others.
I didn’t understand that until I accomplished my whole cycling from Chongqing to Yinchuan, a 1700-kilometer long expedition covering 2 provinces in Southern China and 3 provinces in Northern China.
On the uphill national highway that day, my mind was filled up with frustration and complaint, both towards myself and my team mates.
Suddenly I ran across a huge plain reservoir down my feet on the left side of the road. The length and breadth of this area was extended to the end of my sight. Things far away became vague and all of them were enveloped in atmospherically calm air. No words could describe the inner peace it brought to me. The deep and vast plain of water with a few residential houses floating over it looked like a fairyland. My body and soul was gradually melted into this mysterious world. I kept on going forward without knowing myself treading and breathing. I was lost in this seemingly infinite moment. And I felt that solo trip can also offer me much when you were not meant to get much.
When I am on the road, the pursuit of honor and accomplishment are forgotten. When the nature without artificial effort catches you, nothing can be discerned from between heaven and earth, except your own insignificance. That’s the moment when you truly appreciate your accidental presence on the world, when you hear the hint of the whole universe.
The true meaning of being empty, peaceful and selfless was uttered to me from the ground. I finally believed that the road had hidden seas of mysteries and inspirations, which were envisioned by everyone of our team in the everlasting long trip residing in our memory.