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NMH 07-02-2026 © Fish by Master Qi Baishi (1863-1957) Kingfisher has a special talent: drawing with his beak. There is nothing mysterious about that. Daily practice over countless days has forged a remarkable ability. Add to this a bit of the innate endowment of a bird supreme at catching fish, and the training itself becomes enjoyable. But Kingfisher using his beak to draw on the ground is something very strange. Busy pecking here, then hopping to scratch out marks there, Ki

Chẫu Chàng Hanoi, Spring 31-1-2026 © 2023 Anhinga, painting of Bùi Quang Khiêm Does the Bird Village like traveling? Of course it does. By nature—loving freedom, open-spirited, fond of arguing, and always on the wing—how wouldn’t birds enjoy journeys to faraway places? Even so, for the Bird Village, this remains a distant dream. Long-distance travel is both difficult and dangerous. Only Pelicans, as a migratory species, can manage it—but they are not villagers. So the dream o

NMH 25-1-2026 © VQH Zhuangzi sees Kingfisher fidgeting among the branches of a peach tree and, puzzled, asks: — Why is it that today Kingfisher is not on the bamboo branch, meditating and catching fish, but instead hopping about on a peach tree like this? Hearing Zhuangzi’s voice, Kingfisher is overjoyed and replies at once: — Master, please save me, for my mind is unsettled. For days now, I’ve been thinking about the legend of the Immortal Peach of the Queen Mother of the We

NMH 01-01-2026 An illustration of ‘You give me a papaya; I return to you a piece of jade’ From time to time, there are days when Zhuangzi finds himself at a loss in his thinking. At such moments, Master Zhuang’s face tightens into a frown; even when he smiles, it looks twisted and rather unsightly. At times like these, the limited learning of Kingfisher can unexpectedly prove useful. This noon, in the cool air of winter, on the first day of the new year, the sunlight was pale

NMH 15-12-2025 Created by ChatGPT Toward late afternoon, as the sun cast long shadows and the schools of fish return to their resting places, Kingfisher still perchs on the branch. Its eyes follows the setting sun; it no longer looks like a laborer hunting fish, but like one lost in vague, wandering thoughts. Delighted by this strange sight, Zhuangzi speaks up: – Which stubborn fish has chased you adrift into the realm of reverie? Seemingly unperturbed, Kingfisher swoops down

NMH 13-12-2025 Created by ChatGPT Early in the morning, Zhuangzi notices Kingfisher by the pond. At times, it joyfully plunges into the water and flies back up, carefree and refreshed. Yet after a while, it grows pensive, its demeanor turning quietly somber. Zhuangzi walks to the pond’s edge, near the branch Kingfisher has chosen to perch on, and waves his hand. When Kingfisher flies over, Zhuangzi asks: — Your spirit seems unsettled and erratic—are you perhaps caught in a dr

NMH 04-12-2025 Created by ChatGPT Early in the morning, seeing Kingfisher frozen in place, staring intently at the water’s surface, Zhuangzi calls out: – Why are you lost in such vague thoughts that you’ve forgotten to catch fish, Kingfisher? Noticing Zhuangzi, Kingfisher brightens and swoops down. After a moment of contemplation, he says: – Catching fish may help with cultivation, but it leaves behind no legacy. It’s dull and trivial. Please teach me how to live in a way tha

NMH 01-12-2025 Created by ChatGPT As Zhuangzi strolls along the riverbank, watching the fish joyfully dart through the water, he notices Kingfisher perch gloomily on a willow branch and asks: — I see the river full of fish—each one plump and lively. Why, then, are you so downcast? Kingfisher sighs: — Ever since you helped me witness the light of the Dao through The Six Persimmons painting, I have been delighted and pondered even more deeply. Yet the deeper I think, the more

NMH 30-11-2025 Six Persimmons  (六柿圖), Muqi Fachang (1210–1269) One autumn day, Kingfisher perches on the pomegranate branch next to Zhuangzi’s house, cheerfully boasting: — I just ate a fish that had a pearl, which allows me to see the future, so I witnessed many marvelous things! Zhuangzi asks: — What did you see? Kingfisher replies: — I saw that 1,500 years later, there would be a painting called Six Persimmons . And more than 2,000 years later, the advanced Japanese would

Minh-Hoang Nguyen HCM, 29-11-2025 Six Persimmons  (六柿圖), Muqi Fachang (1210–1269) Six Persimmons  is a painting created by Master Muqi Fachang (牧谿 法常), a Chinese Chan Buddhist monk and artist, in the 13th century. Although the painting was not particularly well-known in China at the time it was created, once it was brought to Japan, it came to be regarded as a national treasure there. It is not easy to deeply understand the meaning of this painting. One can search far and wid

La Viet Phuong 25-11-2025 Created by ChatGPT One breezy afternoon, Zhuangzi and Kingfisher sit by the pond, enjoying tea while watching the gentle ripples spread across the water’s surface. After a while, Kingfisher asks: — Master, in this world, what is ultimately the most valuable thing? Zhuangzi takes a slow sip of tea, smiles, and replies: — There is no such thing as "the most valuable.” Anything can be precious, and anything can become worthless. Kingfisher frowns: — How

Perijá Tapaculo 11-11-2025 “A ripple knows the stone,” Kingfisher says. “I do not count fish; I feel them. I do not hoard. I do not waste. I do not forget.” Zhuangzi smiles: “Then let the river be your teacher, and you its student. Eat, but do not devour. Fly, but do not flee. Be, but do not become too much.” In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix Cities are pivotal to tackling climate change, but their success depends on the capacities of public agencies, businesses, and civi

Pallid Dove 11-11-2025 That is what one calls: the master practices wu wei (non-action), the workers practice you wei (action). Wu wei attains everything; you wei attains nothing. Isn’t that precisely what Zhuangzi always teaches? In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix Electric cars promise cleaner air and climate benefits [2,3]—but what actually persuades people to buy one? The cross-country study of Schiaroli and Fraccascia [4] surveyed 737 consumers in Germany, Italy, and N

Laughing Kookaburra 07-11-2025 Perching turns into meditation the moment Kingfisher relaxes into the branch, yet stays ready for any sneaky fish. He inhales the morning like it’s his favorite tea, exhales whatever worries he never bothers to pick up, and lets thoughts float off like wayward feathers. Watching him, Zhuang admits, “I might be a revered thinker, but Kingfisher lives the Dao more than I know about it. In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix Australia’s new national

Balearic Shearwater 07-11-2025 “Wild is not chaos. Wild is rhythm unmeasured.” In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix How should schools prepare young people for a warming world? The study of Duindam and colleagues [2] compares how secondary-school geography curricula in Spain and the Netherlands address climate change, focusing on not only what students should know but also how they should feel, value, and act—the often “hidden” affective goals that shape real-world behavior.

Wood Lark 07-11-2025 Kingfisher tilts his head. “I dive. I catch fish. I know what’s real because I touch it. You dream. Is that knowing?” Zhuangzi chuckles. “You know the water. I know the dream. Different ways of knowing.” In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix How can schools equip teenagers not just to understand climate change, but to help mitigate it? A recent study by Ikonen [2] tracks how Finnish upper secondary geography curricula and textbooks (1985–2024) have presen

Icterine Warbler 07-11-2025 Kingfisher flutters his wings. “Conservation without Dao is like a river without fish. The fish are not numbers. They are rhythms. I do not disturb the rhythm. I join it. In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix How should schools balance hands-on science with compassion for living things? White and colleagues [2] aim to answer this question by examining insect collecting with K–12 students. They map both its educational payoffs and its ethical pitfal

Grey Wren 06-11-2025 “Wild is not chaos. Wild is rhythm unmeasured.” In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix As climate change education becomes a global imperative, the role of teachers in shaping students' environmental understanding and engagement grows ever more critical [2-4]. In their 2025 study, Fasching, Schubatzky, and Hopf [5] explore how Austrian secondary school physics teachers perceive teaching climate action as a socio-scientific issue (SSI) and how these percept

Palau Fantail 06-11-2025 First, for birds immersed in all sorts of disputes, over millennia, making too much noise, Zhuang teaches: “Birds don’t argue about the sky. They fly.” In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix The accelerating ecological crisis calls for not just technological or political responses, but a fundamental shift in how we think about nature [2,3]. Recently, Laine and Ratinen [4] investigated how secondary students in Finland perceive the human–animal relation

Pale Batis 29-10-2025 Kingfisher tilts his head. “I dive. I catch fish. I know what’s real because I touch it. You dream. Is that knowing?” Zhuangzi chuckles. “You know the water. I know the dream. Different ways of knowing.” In Kingfisherish Wandering  [1] © Wix Urban water systems in developing countries often face the dual challenge of rapid urbanization and fragmented infrastructure [2-4]. A new study by Ross et al. [5] in the Journal of Cleaner Production explores this