A moment of silence to welcome spring

At the end of the year, I suddenly heard the lyrics of the song "What did I do last year" by musician Bui Cong Nam:“Now is the time to look back, to see the year that has just passed/ Whether it was sad or happy, whether there was anger or forgiveness./... Success and failure are just things of the past./Happy New Year”.

The sounds of a whole year rushed back to me like a slow motion film.

The last days of the year are filled with complex emotions that are hard to separate into layers. There is joy, there is sadness, there is regret, there is happiness... Layers of emotions keep flooding back, making my heart linger like a drunkard, swaying and not wanting to wake up.

No matter how tough we are, how much we strain ourselves, if we come across the melody of the song above, it will make us relax, a feeling of elation and excitement invades our souls. And we begin with moments of remembering what happened in the past year.

A busy year with so much work. A year with only the word “deadline” constantly present. We go around, struggling with work, the main purpose is to make a living. And in that vortex of survival, we unintentionally forget many things. Forget the smiles of our parents.

Do we ever sit back and remember, when was the last time we saw a smile on our parents' faces?

I remember the days when I was a child, even though life was difficult, my parents had to work hard to make ends meet, but the house was always filled with laughter. Just saying “I love you, Mom” or “Mom, you are so beautiful, the kindest mother in the world”… made my mother smile. Or when I often asked coquettishly: “Dad, do you love me?”, my father calmly replied: “My precious daughter, if I don’t love you, who will I love?” Then both father and daughter laughed loudly in the house.

Forget the warm hugs. Have you ever wondered how long it has been since you hugged your parents tightly and said a few loving words to them? It seems that the older we get, the more mature we become and the older we become, the more distance we create with our parents and relatives. There are no more loving words and sweet gestures that we used to say when we were young.

Forget about meals with parents. Forget about the smiles of our loved ones. How long has it been since we felt relaxed sitting next to a tray of boiled spinach, braised fish with pickles, and braised meat… We ate and whined to our parents.

I still remember, when I was a child, I only looked forward to the end of the year, when the weather was cold, my mother would cook me some braised meat, soft, fatty, and eaten with hot rice. It was truly a "long-lasting dish", I still remember it until now.

And the longing, the burning desire is a family meal with all the flavors of love.

Life in the bustling city, the flow of people and vehicles coming and going makes us dizzy with that bustling vortex. Then the memories of the beloved countryside, where there are golden rice fields, fragrant lotus ponds every summer and autumn. Then the fragrant, green onions, garlic, herbs, and mustard greens that mother planted on the porch, were saved for her beloved children.

The last days of the year are the time for us to calm our souls, reflect on the past year and suddenly be startled by the harshness of life that has pulled and pushed us into a whirlpool of busyness, of making a living, making us suddenly forget the old loves. The last days of the year are truly valuable because they bring us back to our memories, removing the layer of dust of time covering things that are easily forgotten.

The cold winds blew in, winter was clearly present. The sky was gray, the trees temporarily left their yellow leaves to welcome the new spring buds. Putting aside the worries and regrets of the past year, we realized that we had missed out on so many good things. Tell yourself to slow down, live for yourself, for your family.

Come back to your parents to have family meals together. Take the opportunity to receive the satisfied smiles on your parents' faces, deeply marked by the marks of time. Just thinking about it makes me feel spring.