ONCE UPON A TIME
“It’s my hometown, but it’s also a great town. There are a lot of stories here when you peel back the layers”.
I was born in Mae Hong Song, Thailand. It is a small province in the north of Thailand where the weather is so good in winter and it is always raining. It is a wonderful place which tourists like to visit.
One day, I watched Hometown Cha Cha Cha which was a Korean drama series on TV. It was a show which told stories about the residents of a rural area. It told of the people’s collaborative lifestyle, friendship, gratitude, and happiness. I loved this show as it matched with my own hometown stories.
Chapter one: the warming in the winter
As I remember, I loved the winter and the rain because they were a great season for me. In winter, I could see the mist in the morning when I woke up on my bed and opened the window. It was such a fantastic time that I was so close to nature and its sounds. I could listen to birds’ sounds, it was like they were talking and singing. There are many kinds of flowers on the mountain and at that time they started to blossom, it was so colorful.
In winter, the people in my village cooked glutinous rice roasted in bamboo joints which was excellent food. When they cooked it, they shared it around the neighborhood knew it was a small gift, yet it was a great thing for me, it always touched my heart when I saw it.
Winter was not the only time for sharing or cooking food but it was the best time for everyone. In Thailand, the winter will start in middle of October and lasts until January. It was the happiest time for many people in my village around Christmas day. The villagers visited their neighbors and they sang a song. They had a small band but it was a great band, and neighbors would share some gifts with the band as well.
These memories will always stay in my mind as what I saw when I was a child. I do not want to forget them, they are the best stories which I would like to share and tell to the next generation when I go back to my hometown.
Chapter two: the water drop was falling from the shy
“The sun after the rain is much more beautiful than the sun before the rain”.
When I was a child, my grandmother usually took me to the rice field to catch fish. You might not believe it, but there was a lot of fish in the rice field during the raining season. As the rice field blocked the river many times, there was flooding. This could be how I found so many fish in the rice field.
At the same time, the farmers in my village started planting rice and I saw this since I was a child. My grandmother told me “ Throwing dirt on a seed only increases its value.”
It might be a philosophical quote that I heard from my grandma. Because my life was in the countryside I could learn traditional philosophy from the adults in my life. I thought it was a great lesson which the classes in school could not teach me. I have chosen to follow it, kept it in my heart and through my daily life.
While the rain was falling, I often sat in front of the balcony and watched it. Although it might be annoying for someone, I listened to the rain sound. In my opinion, the rain sound\ was like the ostraca band that playedmusic to the audiences who sat in the big hall. I did not understand the meaning of the sound yet it gave a lot of life and abundance for many lives around the world.
Chapter 3: come and leave
“Like the season you come and go, and like the clouds you float away, but I love you all the same”
The winter and the rain come and go, they are normal things that I understand. They remind me of the short happiness when the trip had finished and it was time to turn home. I have met a lot of people in my life, I was so happy when I met them and it was sad when they left.
I always hate leaving and yet it was reality which all people must face. Everything changes when the time is right and you cannot predict when this is. These are my memories of my hometown and the seasons which I loved.
Finally,“People come and go, pain comes and goes. But so does joy. And if our heart is closed because we don’t want to suffer, then they won’t be open enough to recognize the joy as it flies by.” Geneen Roth