Daily life

Hearing her cry for help in her sleep, he was frozen.

What happened in her dream that made her felt so sad? So hopeless? So much pain? Did the bad memory come back to her? What should he do if it really came to her again? He could do anything to protect her here, in the real word but in her dreams, what could he do? Nothing! He was frozen. And pain.

Shaking her hands to wake her up, he could not breathe until she opened her eyes and whispered “Babe, I’m here. Everything is fine... Everything is fine...”

The year of the cat will be over soon, just some hours to count and the year of the dragon is ready to come. Tet is knocking everyone’s door and urging people to be more hurry to welcome a new page of their life. Some of us may wonder what will happen, some may worry about what is waiting ahead - there are many questions to ask and that’s why it makes sense - We get surprised and we find our own way to go.

We have just finished the most attractive activity preparing for Tet: making bánh chưng. As some of my friends have already known, my family always has lot of fun when making bánh chưng, mostly because seeing me manage to keep rice, mungbean, meat and leaves at their right place my family can’t stop laughing. While managing to recover their breath between two times of laughing, they all try to guess which shape my produce would be. It’s always interesting when you continue doing something that you do not know how it would be until you finish it, haha. Finally, this year I proudly say that I wrapped a nice looking bánh chưng. Anyway, I’m sure my mom won’t think of buying bánh chưng for Tet for sure although making them ourselves usually give her much more things to do than just going to a food-store and pick some. Now all our bánh chưng are boiling, they will be welldone in about 6 hours. Lunar new year is very close.

The nice smell of pomelo covers the house. My mom has washed a pomelo very carefully by a piece of cloth, wetted by wine - she told that wine can brighten the peel of a pomelo and strengthen its perfume. This year we have been given a lot of pomelos so beside the most beautiful one was chosen to be put on the 5-kind-fruit tray, there are still many pomelos for us to enjoy and these pomelo are very delicious, hehe. I love the taste of pomelo - the combination of sweet and sour, and I love to use pomelo peel to for bathing. Putting some piece of pomelo peel into a pot, boiling for some minutes and we have the most wonderful water with sweet perfume and golden colour for washing your hair or bathing. Pomelo leaves are good choice, too, but why we have to go out to look for some leaves while wasting something already here for us, right? If we look around with positive eyes, we can find many interesting things.

Brushing my hair, feeling the sweet smell of pomelo is there, smiling to myself, I raise my voice, singing some songs suddenly appear in my head. Some people called me and asked how much I prepare for Tet, how I feel at this Tet. Everything is great now and there is nothing to complain about. People said that spring is the season to love so why don’t open your heart and feel the energy of everything around, feel the energy of yourself? I smiled and told them that everything is as I wish.

Once, a friend told me that she thought all her love has been devoted for my big bro and then, when he passed away, she felt no interest in others who come for her, and I could feel that she thought it wasn’t right if she felt for someone else. I could not agree with her. If someone loves you, he must want you to be happy, not to be faded because of mourning for him all days and nights; loving a new one doesn’t mean your love for the one you know before is less than ever, it is even added more than you ever know - that’s what I told her and told myself. This spring, looking at her bright smile, I don’t know if she remembers our conversation that time but I know she is more open for her life, and that’s what makes me happy. When you move forward, you don’t leave anything behind, everything is still with you - only you understand that or not.

In your mind, what's the sign of spring?

The sky was much brighter than last time but it was still very cold. While brushing my hair, I heard my mom call excitedly: "Oh, swallows show up! It must be warm soon!" Swallows? I ran out hurriedly and looked into the sky. First, I saw two swallows flying. Wow, swallows, they came back, they really came back here! There were many swallows flying above the village. They were happy to enjoy their dance and I was so happy to see them. I hadn't seen them for years. My mom said that they come here every year, I just had not come back home at the right time to see them. Oh my, this year I did not miss them again, that was so great. I could not stop looking at those lovely bird dancing in the air. Through their wings I could feel spring's breath.

On the way to the town I got surprised again. My eyes were caught by a small purple hill. Billions of tiny wild flowers dyed it into light purple. I knew that I found another reason to like winter, or more exactly, to like the last time of winter. My heart was singing.