A martial arts woman enters my story — Part 4

Hearing versus listening

Link to part 3

Non-members can read here

The change of wheels

A share from the series, The Adventures of Julia Wang, Book 3, Script Writer & Actor — Your life’s show, (2024). From the chapter, Hearing versus listening.

Scene: Julia and Evie are in London. Anna is Julia’s aunt in France. She is very excited about the sitter for her and Jo-Ann’s girl twins.

Hearing versus listening

We move into the second half summer term, which is from the 15th of June to the 3rd of July.

Anna just called me, telling me everything is fine. Surprise! Would I have expected otherwise?

She is especially joyful today: “I must admit, I’m fascinated by Shun. She’s really a woman with integrity. She has a super-hot scooter. She carries her cat, Blanchette, in a special rucksack. It has a mesh window, so she can look out and the smells reach the inside. You can hear the sounds from outside, anyway. The scooter is super chic 125cc white and red Peugeot Django from 2023. Her previous one was from 2016, but otherwise it looks the same. Retro!”

Anna laughs: “When she talked about the scooter, I was about to ask her why it wasn’t running on electricity, but she looked me strait in the eye saying: ‘don’t argue about an electric driven scooter, you’ll lose big time.’ As the wise woman I am, I didn’t.”

Anna is unstoppable: “Now Shun teaches Jo-Ann and me martial arts too! I assume it wasn’t the overall reason to get her as a sitter?”

“And you’re right.”

Anna says, she asked Shun a question: “What do you get out of this arrangement? Not that I’m totally ignorant of that, knowing the twins … to some degree, but I would like to hear how you see things.”

“Uh, a lot … like the ‘fulfilling’ of a long-awaited purpose, but let those things bubble up and out in a natural manner along the way. My life up till now hasn’t been boring or without meaning. When the purpose didn’t present itself at my next point in life, I simply thought to myself: ‘well, hopefully next time’, and enjoyed whatever had shown up. I could always sense the purpose laying somewhere ‘out there’.”

Anna is impressed: “So for almost 44 years you’ve had known something special would happen!”

“Yes, but not until that day where I asked myself to read a certain post had I felt IT so strongly. That was also why I was so giddy when I visited.”

Anna continues our talk: “I find it odd that martial arts would be so important that Shun should wait for 44 years for what would be her life purpose.”

“And you’re right here as well. It has nothing to do with martial arts … because it makes no sense.

“We’re already in an era of increasing change. It may seem impossible to keep up at times … and at other times, you get the illusion of control.

“Shun was unsure of what she was searching for, but she refused to be stagnant and embraced life with passion. She felt she would know it the moment the unknown became known. Most of all, it was a sense of knowingness when many paths and conditions met and triggered her awareness.

“Martial arts have always been her passion, but remember, this wasn’t the initial reason for the connection, even not a means to join. It was an inner sense and the Chinese connection.”

Anna feels uneasy: “So if we hadn’t got at least one Chinese kid …”

“You must see it the other way around. The kids used the Chinese connection to connect. The martial arts were Plan-B … kind of. Not that I believe a plan-B would ever be necessary for the two. The music would have easily brought Shun into our families, much better than the martial arts can ever do.

“Like Luzi brought Ju-long, you brought Jo-Ann, I brought Evie, the twins brought Shun, into the family. In the grand scheme, they were here before they were born.”

Anna wonders: “Shun seems to have a different connection than the rest.”

“Hm, it only seems so, as you said. Diving deep, the twins are closer to Shun than to you and Jo-Ann.”

“So THAT is our role … Jo-Ann and I!”

It is evident: “Yes? It’s more comprehensive than that, so don’t see your role to be solely that. Every parent has that role … to bring up their kids … most times. It can be the sole purpose, so don’t belittle that role. And, as you know, there’s no ownership! Long time ago, I told you I’m closer to the consciousness of Carl than to anyone else in the family. Let it go, Anna.”

Anna is disappointed: “Sure. I just thought, it was more special.”

“And it is. How can it not be? You’re with Jo-Ann raising Ju and Mei for a reason. The human Anna will never see the grand picture of what this actually is. She only sees a stamp-large snippet of a very large multilayered painting, and believe me, it’s magnificent. You can’t see my tears, but you can surely hear my trembling voice.”

Anna sounds frustrated: “Why can’t I see it when you obviously can?”

“Because I’m not the human Julia, and I am. I have no physical eyes so I can’t see, but I can sense. You know all this. Work with Shun, honour the relationship and expand … that’s partly why she’s with you.”

“So she’s also here for me?”

“She’s not less here for you. You call her ‘Master’. Do you think she takes you less seriously? You could even ponder if she would be there if you weren’t.”

“You confuse me, Julia, or whoever.”

“Your human mind is confused … that’s all. Let’s conclude the talk and continue some other time.”

I am not the least surprised as Anna texts me a little later, when she had sorted things out: “Shun is here for Jo-Ann and me. The twins just enjoy her company!”

“Shun is there for herself, too. She’s much aware of that. Early in our talk, I said you must see it the other way around. Why would the two extremely capable girls need Shun, anyway?”

“I wasn’t obviously listening!”

“Hearing versus listening. Enjoy your day, dear!”

Still, Anna only listens to what I said. We can set up the constellation: listening versus sensing, which I also hinted at during our talk.

Thank you for reading to the end!

© 2026, Eriqa Queen. All rights reserved.

I will publish part 5 on Tuesday, 4 August.