This morning, I woke up later than usual on work days. Pulling open the living room curtains, I grabbed my laptop and sat on the couch as I always do. The TV shows I had watched last night no longer held my interest. However, the background music, “Burning” by Maria Arredondo, still lingered in my mind. I clicked on YouTube and listened to it.

Outside, the landscape is covered by a thick layer of snow. The name of my son that I had written with a drumstick on the snow piled up on the patio has been erased by gusts of wind. The ice cubes hanging from the eaves are melting and dripping. The sky is a light blue with a few scattered white clouds, and the sun casts its golden rays on the ground. In this moment, as I gaze at the pale blue sky and bask in the warm sunshine, I feel like it’s spring. My previous sense of depression has vanished, replaced by happiness that fills my heart. It takes me back to my youth in my hometown, a small town in southwest China, where I would sit in the yard, reading a book while the spring sunshine and gentle breeze enveloped me, and birds chirped in the tree overhead. The world around me was peaceful, warm, and vibrant.

There are always moments that evoke unique emotions and memories within me: a song from a movie transports me back to a long-forgotten dream; a smiling profile reminds me of someone I once loved; a falling leaf takes me back to a fall day many years ago when I picked up a four-leaf clover and pressed it between the pages of a book; a landscape painting transports me to a place I may have visited before; the sound of a flute sends me back to a moonlit night when I lay on the stone steps in front of my home, counting the stars and imagining my future life…

Now, I am far away from my hometown, with my family and friends still in China. I dream almost every night, and most of my dreams revolve around the people I know in China and my younger days. Every morning, when I awaken from those dreams, it takes me a few seconds to figure out where I am and what I am doing. A sense of loss and homesickness engulfs me. Day by day, these feelings accumulate in my heart. I find solace in writing down my emotions and stories about my hometown, and documenting my life on this platform. If someone could help correct any mistakes in my English articles, it would be a tremendous assistance to me!