Mother's fortune

One morning, a baby bird learning to fly fell into the yard. It was frightened and chirped, trying to flap its tiny wings to fly. Feeling sorry for it, I picked it up, intending to find a nest to return it. Unexpectedly, it became even more frightened and chirped even louder.

The mother bird heard her baby flying towards her. Seeing her baby in my arms, she could only jump around and cry miserably. I immediately let the baby bird down to the ground. It happily ran and flapped its wings as it jumped back to its mother. It seemed to have been guided by its mother, so the baby bird jumped onto a tree branch and flapped its wings to gain momentum to fly high. I watched the mother and baby bird, and suddenly realized that the baby bird looked a lot like me.

mother's-money.jpg — Illustration photo.

When I first became an adult, I arrogantly thought that I could take care of myself without having to depend on my parents, that I was too old to listen to my parents' scolding. I went to the city and worked, thinking that I would earn money to take care of myself, and earn money to take care of my parents. Who would have thought... After working, I understood the saying "people's food is very hard, it's not like the food my mother eats while sitting down". To earn money, one must sweat and cry. The small salary is nothing compared to the high cost of living in the city. I struggled to save enough to get by. On holidays, I had to save for a long time to buy some gifts to bring home. Only then did I understand the hardships of my parents who had to work hard for years to raise their children to study.

But every time my mother told me to go back to my hometown to find a job to live closer to home to save money, my pride swelled up. I was determined to live a miserable life in the city and refused to return with a failed face, afraid of hearing my parents' nagging. I was determined to pack up and leave and refused to depend on my parents anymore, so I rushed to the city, working day and night just to earn money, to prove to my parents that I could still live well without them.

Years passed and I only knew how to focus on making money and building my own career. When I had a stable job and a stable income, I was complacent with my initial achievements, and I worked even harder, trying to earn as much money as possible to make my parents proud of me. I didn't like to hear my mother praise this or that family's children for earning tens of millions a month, building a house, buying a car. Every time I heard my mother praise other people's children, my pride would flare up. I arrogantly promised myself that I would do the same as them, and would make my mother acknowledge my achievements.

And so the years passed.

Just like that, the days I visited home became less and less, the distance between me and my parents grew further and further...

Then the little bird built a new nest, chirping next to another bird. Having a small warm home, busy with husband and children made me forget that in that countryside, in that small house, there were two people who gave birth to and raised me and waited for me to come home every day. I just thought simply, if I could take care of myself, I would lessen the burden on my parents, that was enough. Every time I returned home for a few days of family reunion, that was enough. I never thought that my parents were very old, in the old house they just waited to see us come back, to hear the laughter of their children and grandchildren. That was enough, there was no need for the delicious and strange dishes we brought back because we were old, had high blood pressure and diabetes and had to abstain from many things.

Birds, once they can fly, usually build new nests and never return to their old ones. The same goes for humans. Anyone who gets married wants to move out on their own and doesn’t want to go back to live with their parents. Being lectured and nagged all day is tiring. Everyone is afraid of living with old people because old people tend to forget things and often compare themselves to other people’s children… So young people often want more freedom, whether they are hungry or full, they still want to live alone.

Only Mom and Dad still miss their children every day, every now and then they open the album and smile to themselves. Just now they heard them running, laughing, fighting and crying loudly, but now it is quiet, each one in a different place. Just yesterday they were scolding them for being too absorbed in watching TV and not studying, now they are all parents. On sunny days, Mom takes the old wooden chest out to dry in the sun. The chest is always locked and kept high up. I thought it contained something valuable, but Mom kept a stack of her children's certificates in it, and every now and then, afraid that termites would eat it, she would take it out to dry in the sun. Mom also carefully used a towel to wipe each page clean.

One time, on my way to work, I stopped by to visit my mother's house and saw her treasures drying out. It turned out that her children were her greatest treasure. It turned out that she was always proud of her children, but she just didn't say it. And, it turned out that she always missed her children, but they sometimes remembered and sometimes forgot their mother, and it seemed like they forgot more than they remembered...

Source