温心小屋
以文养心。原创文学，请勿抄袭,如需转载，请告知。谢谢
2020/7月
5：30醒来，6：30在厨房煮早餐，打开门前去寻找雨的痕迹。地是干的，车身是干的，但我怎么就觉得雨应该是来过的呢？没错，雨确实来过，在黑铁艺扶手上和绣球叶上留下了痕迹。昨晚8：30天空的蓝紫色云团，让我知道雨会在夜色中来临，我的推测没错。
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. 一系列的研究显示，增加在绿地范围内的活动时间会增进人类的健康， 进而减少人们的医疗支出。 实验证明：花时间在绿野内活动可以提高人体免疫力，而这只是众多益处之一。新的和更多的文学作品，书写有关绿地与医疗支出的关系，从中人们看到了更多令人展望的发现。
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.
今早把儿子在校对面的停车场落下，看着他过马路。他立在斑马线上观望三个方向的车辆动向，见它们都停下来，他开始过马路。我发现他没有挥手向几方的司机感谢，晚上吃饭时我会告诉他。教孩子一些小细节，会证我们的孩子成为更受欢迎的人。
昨天秋天的第一天，秋风起，行走在林边的路上，耳边声涛阵阵。见到一株结着小红果的树，上前观看，稍候见一对白人老夫妻也在不远处看这树，于是我向他们打招呼。他们挺友好，一起往前走了一小段。老先生问我是中国人还是日本人，我说是中国人。他又问是台湾的，香港的，还是大陆的？我说是大陆的。虽然他还保持着微笑，但我感到他眼神的变化。我问他是否去过台湾，他说有，他有朋友住在台湾南部。我说我也去过台湾，很美的地方。我没怎么看电视新闻，只是偶有从收音机里听到两耳朵，其中一耳朵印象比较深，是BIDEN说： WE DON'T WANT A COLD WAR. 从那话里我感到目前中美两国关系不妙。 于是我说我知道现在两国的关系有些紧张，希望不要出事。他淡淡地甩了句“I HOPE NOT". 然后拐进了自家的道。我独自回味着他的话，心中有些戚然。走进小区，看到许多人家门上的秋天门饰，我心情又好起来。我说了两星期了要去买秋天的门饰，就是还没行动。秋天真的到了，不能再拖了。
