When I was a child, I saw my mother carefully handling old ceramic jars, some with chipped mouths, as if "handling them like... pottery", and I simply thought: I don't understand why my mother treasured those old things so much; she was a neat person, so why didn't she throw them away to make the house tidy?
Mom kept those big and small ceramic jars in the corner of the kitchen, not displaying them or using them like new ceramic vases or plates or bowls. Mom was afraid that her naughty children would break them or play hide and seek.
Every now and then, my mother would take it out to clean, admire it, and then put it back in its original place. When I grew up, I learned that it was a keepsake my grandmother left for my mother. The gaping mouth was caused by my mother hurriedly carrying it to the bomb shelter, very carefully but still could not keep it intact.
Later, when my grandmother passed away, I looked at the old ceramic jars in the kitchen corner and missed her so much. My mother was also getting old and no longer meticulously cleaned them.
The kitchen corner is now also more spacious and clean - it is a proper induction stove, not the old wood stove stained by the sun and rain, so my grandmother's ceramic jars have become beautiful and somewhat... luxurious decorations, because collecting old ceramics is a trend.
Mom told my brothers and I, if anyone wants to bring it home to cook, soak in wine or do anything, then just bring it home. Mom is old, just leaving it there to look at won't do anything. If you still miss your grandmother, just keep it in your heart!
The day my mother followed my father across the river to her husband's hometown, on my father's shoulders was a shoulder pole, one end had 4-5 large and small ceramic vases, the other end had 2 bronze pots - the dowry my grandmother gave to my mother.
Seeing how my mother treasured the ceramics more than treasures, I firmly believed that ceramics also had a soul. And not only a soul, but also the love my grandmother cherished for her daughter who married on the other side of the river; the longing my mother sent to my grandmother through the way she cherished the ceramic jars.
Nowadays, buying ceramics is not difficult, but finding beautiful and unique ceramics is more difficult. Although she is old, my mother still loves to cook, arrange and decorate, especially when she buys a beautiful set of ceramic cups and plates. She says that ceramics feel comfortable in the hand, and displaying food on ceramic plates and bowls makes it look more familiar and... more delicious.
Perhaps ceramics are born from the earth, so they are gentle and rustic. Occasionally, my brothers and I would buy some household ceramics to give to our mother, knowing that she liked them. Her ceramic “collection” was thus filled with many new, shiny items. However, the old ceramics that my grandmother had given my mother still radiated love that was never old.
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