My Shangri-La

That is one of the most wonderful memories in my life, the time I was attending the Youth Encounter to Sustainability (YES) course in Bad Deutsch Altenburg, Austria last September 2008. I have learnt a lot and have been inspired a lot by the excellent lecturers and highly motivated friends there. We came from all over the world. Unity through diversity, like a big friendly multi-cultural family, we are young people with enthusiastic hearts, wishing to make positive changes for a better world. We spent a very nice and loving time there, learning together, playing together and working together, with a lot of fun. Many aspects of sustainability were approached creatively by inspiring lectures, groupworks, questions, documentaries, talks with experts, discussions, expressive art and particularly by real experiences. We visited wind-park in the region, Amoda organic farm, PET recycling factory, renewable energy centre in Grussing, technical museum in Vienna… And on a whole day immerged in nature, we walked through the national park wetland and paddled across river Donau. This is a unique educational, emotional and social experience, an unforgettable memory in our life forever…

Arja said what i told is like what would happen in the New World. After the Last Judgement Day, God will restore the Earth, transforming it into a paradise, where people live happily and harmoniously with each other and with all the animals and the plants... That recalled me of "Shangri-la", a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world on mystical Himalayas, a fictional place in the novel "Lost Horizon" of James Hilton. Professor Mika had mentioned it in the lecture on “History of Science”. I've not read "Lost Horizon" yet, but I 've known about this word "Shangri-la", by chance, from the song "Lovely lady of Acardia” of Demis Roussos. In its lyrics, there is this sentence: "In your arms I found my Shangrila..."

YES, my Shangrila is also beautiful as a dream! Heaven on Earth is an old dream that humankind always cherish, isn't it? I wonder if a dream of a plentiful, peaceful and happy world is just a mythical utopia, which is too ideal to be true?

Perhaps I'm still optimistic. I believe "there is a rose in every soul". And the wholesome seeds which bring Hope are being multiplied all over the world. You know, prospective of a sustainable future is a modern version of an earthly paradise...

"You may say, I’m dreamer.
But I’m not the only one.
I hope someday you join us
And the world will live as one..."
(Imagine - The Beatles)