溫心小屋
以文養心。原創文學，請勿抄襲,如需轉載，請告知。謝謝
2020/7月
5：30醒來，6：30在廚房煮早餐，打開門前去尋找雨的痕跡。地是幹的，車身是幹的，但我怎麽就覺得雨應該是來過的呢？沒錯，雨確實來過，在黑鐵藝扶手上和繡球葉上留下了痕跡。昨晚8：30天空的藍紫色雲團，讓我知道雨會在夜色中來臨，我的推測沒錯。
Waking up at 5:30, leaving cooked breakfast on the table, I open front door, trying to find traces of rain. The pave road is dry, the parking area is dry, so are the cars. But why did I think rain do come last night?
Yes, rain has been here, I find its traces! They are crystal waterdrops on black iron cast hand railings and leaves of Hydrangea. This Hydrangea bush will bloom blue and purple flowers, same color as the cloud of last night. From the clouds, I predicated this rain. Now, I am a meteorologist!
My first destination is the water fowl pond.
At the head of the boardwalk, a rabbit is standing under the big red maple tree. He is welcoming me, thinking this, the corners of my mouth turn up into a soft smile.
The pollution in pond is still bad, steam fog at far is not as dense as I saw before, just visible. Only a month ago, this kind of scene was magically beautiful. I felt I was appreciating a fairyland and I was part of it.
I read an article, learned the science behind this natural phenomenon, and thought nature really a great magician! but now, the pollution has ruined the power of this magician. With the polluted water, all the good feeling about the fairyland has gone. And even worse, the pale white steam fog emphasizes the cloudiness of the water.
Close to the shore where I am standing, there are not ducks. They are all gathering in far, near the other side of shore. Crossing over the dark green water weeds, my vision pinpoint that particular patch where I can see nice scenes all the time. The rotten log, old and black, which used to be a resting spot for a handful of ducks, now is sinking in the black green water, looking lonely. It makes me think about a house used to accommodate a bunch of happy people, now all people gone, leaving an empty house in loneness and grief.
But my mood is cheered up when I turn my head to a different direction. From there, I see an unique view I never saw before! There is a creature with dark brown fur in the water. With a stick covered by dense green leaves in its mouth, it is swimming in a hurry to far. What is it? my head runs quickly. A beaver! I heard people talking about beaver, saying they are good dam builders; when you see a beaver, you will find a dam built by them nearby; but finding beavers around your house is not a good thing, you have to let them go.
Just in a day, the purple loosestrife have bloomed into columns of flowers. Walking along the galvanized chain link fence, I see various wilder flowers in bloom. I know most of them, which are thistles with white seed-like, feathery bristles, small-flowered white aster, cattail and Queen Anne’s lace, except a patch of purple-red flowers I never met before. In my eyes this is a fantastic plant ecosystem in diversity, so nice and so much fun to see it!
stop and observe, you will find beautify everywhere. I have thought this phrase many times when I was in nature in the past a few months. Once again, it comes into my mind. This is a town I appreciated and loved with beautiful landscapes and nice people. I met nice people and saw beautiful views everywhere.
years ago, when I moved to this town, I lived in a complex along XXX road. I kept my physical exercise routine which I started when I was 30s---fast walking. Thinking back, I wondered why I didn’t go with my father when I was a kid. I still vividly remember those mornings when I heard my father getting up and minutes later, the sound from shutting door came into my ears. He ran outside every morning year round and he went really early, 5:00am--5:30am, even in those cold and dark harsh winter in Beijing.
At that time, I did loop fast walking in my complex. I think my Asian female appearance attracted attentions when I did fast walking. One day, after I finished my fast walking and was wandering to my building, a senior white guy walked to me and told me he has been watching me walking every day. Since I walked so fast, he thought I should serve in the army. Of course, it’s a joke. But I liked his joke, I felt being welcomed! For a new immigrant, the feeling of being welcomed was good. We both laughed.
My loop walking was no difference as indoor walking, it’s just a way to keep me in good shape, and I will feel good about myself. outside my complex, my sphere(scope) of activity was very small. Different factors led my negligence to the beautify of nature. One late spring day three years later when I went back to my old complex, trying to get some memories, I was shocked by seeing tens of trees with beautifully bloomed flowers spreading out in the complex, outside of each building. Those pink, pink-purple and white flowers were densely blooming, like huge flower balls in the air, stunningly beautiful. In town, I have been seeing them all the time in this season. I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice their existence in my complex before! I was totally a blind at that time.
My current home is near a park which is a great place for walking and relaxing. I didn’t pay close attention to the park sign standing at a corner close to the main road until couple weeks ago. I found under the big BOLD words“xxxx PARK”, there is a row of words in smaller size ”a park for all generations”. All the words were painted in Green, meaning “this park is covered by big area of greenness.”
A growing body of work suggests increasing exposure to green spaces is linked to improved human health, which has the potential to reduce healthcare expenditures. Experiments have shown time spent amid green spaces can increase immune function, among other benefits. A new and growing body of literature on the relationship between green spaces and healthcare costs has also reported promising findings. 一係列的研究顯示，增加在綠地範圍內的活動時間會增進人類的健康， 進而減少人們的醫療支出。 實驗證明：花時間在綠野內活動可以提高人體免疫力，而這隻是眾多益處之一。新的和更多的文學作品，書寫有關綠地與醫療支出的關係，從中人們看到了更多令人展望的發現。
Not only people living around benefit from the park, I saw people driving here for walking. None of the parking lots around the park has ever been vacant. This is park people really appreciate and get benefit from, physically and mentally. My cognition about this got stronger during April—June, 2020, at the very beginning and the worst period of time in this pandemic.
今早把兒子在校對麵的停車場落下，看著他過馬路。他立在斑馬線上觀望三個方向的車輛動向，見它們都停下來，他開始過馬路。我發現他沒有揮手向幾方的司機感謝，晚上吃飯時我會告訴他。教孩子一些小細節，會證我們的孩子成為更受歡迎的人。
昨天秋天的第一天，秋風起，行走在林邊的路上，耳邊聲濤陣陣。見到一株結著小紅果的樹，上前觀看，稍候見一對白人老夫妻也在不遠處看這樹，於是我向他們打招呼。他們挺友好，一起往前走了一小段。老先生問我是中國人還是日本人，我說是中國人。他又問是台灣的，香港的，還是大陸的？我說是大陸的。雖然他還保持著微笑，但我感到他眼神的變化。我問他是否去過台灣，他說有，他有朋友住在台灣南部。我說我也去過台灣，很美的地方。我沒怎麽看電視新聞，隻是偶有從收音機裏聽到兩耳朵，其中一耳朵印象比較深，是BIDEN說： WE DON'T WANT A COLD WAR. 從那話裏我感到目前中美兩國關係不妙。 於是我說我知道現在兩國的關係有些緊張，希望不要出事。他淡淡地甩了句“I HOPE NOT". 然後拐進了自家的道。我獨自回味著他的話，心中有些戚然。走進小區，看到許多人家門上的秋天門飾，我心情又好起來。我說了兩星期了要去買秋天的門飾，就是還沒行動。秋天真的到了，不能再拖了。
