This morning, I watched \'The Painted Veil\'

It is Friday. I took a day off for kid’s parent/teacher conference, but morning is wild open. It is a beautiful day with bright sunshine and blue sky. Dropped off kids, I went to CVS bought a pack of cigarette myself for the first time. I came home, made a cup of nice tea and lit one right away, finished it in front of the stove to avoid the lingering scent in the house. Then I popped the DVD which I received over a week ago, and determined to watch a romantic movie to release some of my compressed and confused feelings. 

I ordered the “The painted Veil” for the poetic Chinese scenery and lovely Naomi Watts, and how I cried over Kitty’s story! While the story started with the simpleminded middle class beautiful young girl married the scientist Walter Fane for the pressure of a suitable marriage from her own family and social circle, and got into an affair with a charming married womanizer Charlie without suspense, the story truly developed as the young couple explored to the deep inland (looks like SiChuan) of China to help out the cholera epidemic, as Walter’s way of punishing Kitty’s disloyalty. It is isolation in which Kitty began to see Walter in a devoted mode to his research, helping out patients, and also was forced to open her heart to more than her own emotional needs. While both focused less on themselves, their hearts and potentials started to emerge and their characters started to shine in each other’s eyes. Kitty fell in love with her husband for the first time and Walter fell in love with Kitty’s heart instead of her prettiness. I savored every moment when they mutually attracted each other in spirit, then emotion, then the bodies, and then the hearts and forgiveness as the ultimate outcome of love, the sensual moments! 

Walter died of cholera, but Kitty accompanied him whole heartedly to the end. I mourned with Kitty, sobbing with her for the true love she found, but enjoyed for such a short time and now gone forever. My heart filled with tenderness when I saw the boy, who similizes Walter so much and also named after him. Kitty met Charlie once again with her son, but then Charlie is just no one important. In the movie at the end, Kitty is prettier and more enlightening then ever.  

I lit 2 more cigarettes after the movie, feeling a bit energized yet a sense of contentment. While romance and passion can be so desirable in beautiful surroundings and without life challenges, but the deep and true affection can only come from deeper connection of two’s hearts and values. My life of details has been so stable that I lost the sense of my usefulness as a mom to 3 wonderful children. It is the difficulties and duties that builds one’s character, one’s ability to appreciate another’s depth and form a relationship deeper than emotional and body needs.