Be Kind

We walked the remote village of rural Jiuxian and wandered into the back alleys to check out the interesting traditional Chinese architecture. This sweet woman peeked outside of her house and was curious what we were doing. I snapped a couple quick photos of her and then asked for a portrait which she politely declined, saying in Chinese to my guide that “I am too old; I am not beautiful anymore.” To be honest, that response shocked and saddened me a bit and all I could think to say was that I disagreed and thought she was beautiful. She responded with a bit of grin and livened up in conversation so hopefully that made her day.