2020年1月4日星期六

Colours of Winter

I woke up at 10:00 to a bright sky. I forgot the curtains last night.

After eight hours’ sleep, I still felt exhausted by the five-day holiday to my father's hometown. 
At 10:30 on this twenty-eighth day of December I decided to look for winter that seemed to have lost its way to this disturbed city. Or, the city was at a loss.

While stuffing myself with a lousy breakfast at the McDonald’s, photos of autumn leaves popped up from the junk messages on my phone. Red maple and yellow ginkgo leaves they were, beautiful of course. Yeah, friends had been talking about the huge crowds of people gathering around the strips of maple trees with their red leaves last year. The scene was on the television too; not this year though. Well, I could do that, to look for the red leaves and the long waited winter.

To look for these red maple trees was no problem. They were planted intentionally in selected places and their number was counted. They are the icons in the winter countryside. But why are they?

The first three maple trees were disappointing. But, I was not disappointed. I never really like the way they were planted in the countryside. Actually, they are not even maple but Chinese sweet gum.

Yet, in the end, I found the true colours of winter that belonged to this city.

Winter has come and it touched my heart on this twenty-eighth day of December.


The colours come and go and very often we are not bothered to look at them or think of their ever existence. Nonetheless, they do come with winter and change as the sun rises and sets. It is nothing new but forever changing till they return to where they come from.


13 則留言:

  1. 2020年來到了,相信在這陣寒涼之後,等到春來了,大地將會甦醒。
    春天的腳步將會移動,東風驟起,就會春滿大地,鮮花滿眼。

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    1. 說得很對呢,生命就是這樣循環不息,冬去春便來,好好享受每一刻便好了。

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  2. 縱然香港的冬天越來越暖,但香港位於亞熱帶,尚可以分得出四季,走在郊野,可以享受大自然在春夏秋冬四季的不同景色,可以欣賞一草一木在不同季節所散發出的生命氣息。

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    1. 對呀,若細心觀察我們仍可以在這裏看出四季不同微妙景色,不一定要跑到老遠地方才有所謂秋色。

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  3. The autumn foliage has always been beautiful in this part of the world .... red, yellow, orange ... then, it's winter. So far, this winter has been a mild one without much snow.
    Time flies, I can't believe I have retired for 3 years already. Still enjoying my laze and relaxing retirement life without much purposes. Someone said that I should do some volunteer work. Well, even volunteering can bring stress. Guess I was indeed very traumatized by stress from my former life. Looking back, I don't know how I even survived my stressful work life. There's no way that I'm willing to do it all over again. I'm glad that I retired early the way I did and when I did it, the timing was just perfect.
    How about you? Any plan on retiring soon? Take care and stay well.

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    1. I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying your retirement life or should I say a real life. It must be a difficult decision three years ago but the choice is always right.
      I have been ruminating about early retirement for some years. I had an excellent supervisor and a supportive CEO to work with but the workload was simply overwhelming. They told me to look for a "successor" before I left for good several years ago. Now, the supervisor took her early retirement to support her dying husband and then the CEO died in a traffic accident two years ago.... Things turn from bad to worse at work with the new top management and I am losing faith that the situation will get better, so it may not be long that I finally make up my mind to look for a better new life.
      Work, voluntary or involuntary, does bring along stress, especially interpersonal hassles and conflicts, once you fully commit yourself to it. Just follow your heart as you are the only one who really cares about yourself. I plan to take up some fine arts stuff when I retire. I once thought I would like to be an artist but that was thirty years ago.
      You continue to enjoy everyday and keep well too.

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    1. 詩很動人,配曲更添情意,一聽便愛上了!

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    2. 殷正洋的版本也很好!
      https://youtu.be/Akw4nz_KOyw

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    3. 殷正洋的真是很好,多謝介紹。
      疫情下,祝安好!

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  5. 如今又春臨大地, 願一切好的由春出發。
    音樂好听, 一打開博客就有音樂, 請問是怎樣弄的, 以前YOUTBE可以Autopay, 現在都没有了。

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  6. As I was trying to find some old photos, I found that you are still here.^^ How are you?

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    1. Long time no see Norton! Still here but only occasionally. Not too bad. I guess it will be much better without the COVID-19 pandemic. Hope you are well and enjoying life.

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Thanks for your sharing...