That distant whistle
"Morning Heart Shadow"
In the middle of the night, I woke up in a strange place, "Woo..." The train blew a long whistle, echoing in the fertile fields of Pingchou, and coming from afar through the thick night fog. When I was a child, that distant train whistle echoed in the fields and streams, stepping into the bamboo house and climbing onto the wooden bed every night, urging the hungry little girl to fall asleep with a touch of sadness.
▲Mr. Han Jingrong carefully educates his children, hoping to pass on from generation to generation his legacy of pious love for the Lord and compassion for the suffering of others.
The helplessness of war
In the late 1940s, my father was still a big boy, but his brows were filled with confusion and heaviness caused by the smoke of war. He supported his mother, who was seven months pregnant, beautiful but unassuming, and held on to her mother, who was only two years old, with twinkling eyes. Curious and jumping around, my whole family boarded the warship and sailed from Guangzhou to Keelung. It was expected to be a two-day trip, but the warship had to detour for ten more days in the sea for fear of being bombed. The dry food carried by the parents was exhausted, so they had to spend one Hong Kong dollar a day to buy a porcelain cup of rice from the sailor to feed their daughter first, and then the two of them. Then divide the remaining food, each person takes a bite.
Before the young couple had time to express their youthful ideals and ambitions, they unexpectedly fell into the unknown and confusion of the changing world, and used hunger to unveil a new destiny for themselves and their children. When the warship finally arrived in Keelung, the family was too weak to move, so they took out the expensive British soap in their luggage and exchanged it with the hawker for a cheap meal of carrot cake to satisfy their hunger.
Dadi reward snacks
During the ten years of living in a military military village in Taiwan, five younger brothers and younger sisters were born one after another. Although my father is a school-level military officer, he has to raise six children, but he has to rely on his mother to make careful calculations, collect every dime, and use it in a coordinated way so that the whole family can barely fill their belly. Food lacking in meat and fat does not ward off hunger, and children often have hunger and greed in their eyes. Fortunately, the earth is benevolent and rewards delicious snacks. Every day after school, I taste the sour sorrel along the roadside; peel off the calyx of hibiscus flowers and suck the sweet nectar; follow the palm-shaped serrated leaves, push through the grass, and pick red flowers. Gorgeous wild strawberries; pick small purple berries and enjoy the rich fruity aroma.
Whenever the farmer finished harvesting the sweet potatoes, I would follow a group of tanned playmates, running barefoot in the fields, kneeling on the ground, turning over the dug soil with my hands, and picking up the small sweet potatoes that the farmers had discarded. I actually found a large potato that had slipped through the net, and my heart was so happy that it almost burst out! Holding my share, I hurriedly rinsed off the soil in the Tianlong ditch and chewed the fragrant and crispy sweetness.
Extremely poor Oxfam
On rare days, I make leek pork dumplings at home, paired with daily simple dishes and brown rice. The house was filled with the excitement of the New Year, and the children behaved well-behaved; the parents kneaded dough sticks, chopped meat and mixed stuffing, and their conversations were full of joy. When the fat and white dumplings float, your mouth is watering! My mother first scooped up a bowl full of meat dumplings, then added a few more, handed them to me and said, "Send them to Yanyan's house next door and ask them to try them!"
"Mom, we don't have enough to eat!"
Yanyan's mother often doesn't come home. She is younger than me, but she has to do laundry, cook and take care of her father and younger brother. Her mother took pity on her and cooked delicious food, often not forgetting to give her a portion. My father comforted me and said, "Eat less and the food will taste better, but eating more will be bland." When I came back from Yanyan's house, there were five lonely dumplings lying in my bowl. They were distributed fairly and everyone got the same number.
I tasted it carefully, trying to make the delicious food stay in my mouth longer. I raised my head and saw my father staring at me. He smiled, picked up a fat dumpling from his bowl and put it in my bowl. The younger brother and younger sister looked envious, and the parents simply added one to each child's bowl. There were only four left between the two of them, and they pushed them back and forth. Finally, Dad took a bite of the dumpling and fed the rest to Mom, and also gave several Xiangxiang dumplings. As a child, I really don’t understand. Does a kiss taste better than meat dumplings?
The compassion that hunger cannot take away
My father is a devout Christian. Every Sunday, my mother and I take us to church, guiding us to know the Lord who created heaven and earth, and encouraging the children to respect and love God’s only son, Jesus. Jesus said: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." (Bible John 6:35) Dad is reluctant to let us go hungry physically, let alone let our children The inner life is hungry and barren. Before going to bed every night, my father led the whole family to kneel down and thank God. Everyone was healthy and he was satisfied. He also prayed for the children to have a compassionate heart that would not be taken away by hunger, and to face the challenges of life bravely even though they were poor. confidence.
Kierkegaard observed that life is lived first and understood later.
Tonight, I fell into a dream in a strange place, dreaming back to my childhood. I saw my father holding my little hand and placing it in the loving hands of God. My heart gently walked into the familiar sound of the whistle, feeling peaceful and satisfied.
＊To practice the truth, please read the fourth cup of Life Supplement "Shadow of the Heart in the Dawn"