Jennie Ling Tai

When I lost my mother to lung cancer, and my engagement ended in the same year, the world became colorless to me. I was convinced there wasn’t any magic left for me to feel anymore, and went through my days trying to survive with my children, instead of truly living.

When a friend convinced me to take a few days for myself to go backpacking for the first time, I was hesitant, because I had never done any outdoor activities before, and I had no interest in sleeping outside…I trusted him though.

We hiked up 6 miles to an alpine lake to where we setup camp for a night, and I was astonished! There was a moment on the hike, when I found a pond of white lilies just as the sun was setting, sending dozens of gold beams through a wall of skinny white trees. When I stopped in awe, a white butterfly flew by and sat down on my hip to flutter its wings for a few seconds. Before it flew away, I smiled down at it, and in that moment, I knew that I was wrong about the world.