The garden carries dreams

1. My friend is a lover of nature and flowers. So, she set aside a piece of land to plant flowers, each season has its own flowers, fragrant and sweet. To her, this is a garden full of love, carrying her childhood dream. She often tells that, in the past, her family also had a garden that was green all year round, sweet with flowers and fruits. When she had free time, she often went to the garden to help her mother, sometimes watering, weeding, cutting flowers, and picking fruits.

Early morning walks around the garden, just hearing the chirping of birds calling for their friends, or watching the golden rays of sunlight just emerging from the treetops, have instilled in her heart so much faith and love for life. Seeing her parents working hard, sweating profusely but always with a bright smile on their lips, she always wished that one day she would become a kind-hearted gardener like her parents, or at least save up to buy a plot of land to plant trees. And then, that dream also became a reality, as beautiful as her flower-filled garden today.

Every time I visit her, leisurely strolling around the fragrant garden, I feel so small in the slow, peaceful pace of life. People sometimes need moments like that, to calm their minds in the midst of a peaceful scene. These days, when the cold wind blows in gusts, the garden is still green and quietly nurturing the scent of new season flowers. In the afternoon sun, my heart sparkles with a verse: “In the silence, I sit and dream/draw old dreams on each piece of canvas/my heart still remembers the distant, distant days/of flowers, of dreams. And you”.

2. Suddenly, I remembered the garden filled with childhood and the clear laughter of friends. It was my grandparents' lush green tea garden. There were old tea trees with dark gray trunks and branches reaching high, drawing a blue sky full of leaves. During each harvest season, my grandmother often had to climb up a high stool to reach the farthest branches.

We kids often chose two tall tea trees close together to "build a house" to play house. The two tea trees were used as pillars in the front, and the back pillars were nailed down to the garden with two pieces of bamboo. The roof was made of old banana leaves, and the floor was covered with old mats. The houses were bunches of duoi and fig trees that we picked together, or some bananas and grapefruit segments that our grandmother gave us. We were engrossed in playing, laughing and talking, making the whole garden full of sunshine at noon.

When I was alone, I still went out to the garden to play. After a while of buying and selling by myself, I got bored, so I made a place to lie down, looked at the clouds and softly sang the folk song my grandmother had just taught me. Looking up at the green tea branches with intertwined leaves, I let my mind daydream. The 7-year-old girl at that time could not stop thinking about her grandmother and her teacher with love and admiration. I dreamed that when I grew up, I would be gentle, talented, and able to do everything like my grandmother; beautiful, gentle, and knowledgeable about everything like her.

Whispering those things to her, she often held me in her arms, gently stroked my head and said: "Then you must try to study hard, my child. When you grow up, you will become a good person like your teacher." Her words penetrated my heart, lighting up the life aspirations of a young soul full of desires and dreams.

3. On a leisurely weekend, I took my daughter to visit my friend's garden. This season, the garden has a new friend. They are a few clusters of white wild sunflowers brought back from Da Lat. A few red roses, Sa Pa old roses, and Van Khoi old roses are showing buds. The chrysanthemum beds are blooming yellow in the sunlight. Next to them, a patch of pure white heather mixed with gentle purple blends in the wind.

The little girl skipped and giggled, her laughter filled with the scent of flowers. “The flower garden is so beautiful. When I grow up, I will buy a garden and be the one to grow fragrant flowers” she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with joy. Looking at her playing among the peaceful grass and trees, in the open space, my heart filled with love for life.

Suddenly, my daughter ran towards me, grabbed my hand and asked an old question that she already knew the answer to: “When you were little, what was your dream, Mom?”. I don’t remember how many times my daughter asked me that. Every time she asked, memories flooded back. And I loved even more the dreams that were nurtured in my grandmother’s small garden, in the peaceful countryside, filled with warm family love.

Comment (0)