Thoughts on the 23rd and 8th parallel north latitude

Twenty-three degrees north latitude is a warm latitude.

The epidemic has started a tug of war with us. Think about it, it has been a full year since we hurriedly returned to Guangzhou from our hometown on the third day of the first lunar month last year. During the year, epidemic prevention work has become an important part of our lives. I haven’t gone anywhere for the whole year, and looking at my life that is about to get moldy, my lover said that I should take advantage of the Spring Festival to go out for a walk without leaving Guangzhou.

During the Spring Festival of 2021, the sun was shining brightly, the wind was gentle, and the spring flowers were blooming. At 9 a.m. on the fourth day of the first lunar month, I took my wife, children, and mother-in-law on my way north to our destination. It is Conghua Forest Camp. This place is located at 23°8 North Latitude. Also going with me were two of my daughter's classmates, a total of 13 people.

The road is not far, and we arrived in a little more than an hour. After parking the car, we walked inside along the path into the park. The roads in the garden are paved with cement, lined with flowers, plants and trees, and there are several rest pavilions scattered here and there. We arrived ten minutes early and decided to wait for them at the nearest rest pavilion at the door. At this time, the blue sky was cloudless, and the sun emitted a dazzling orange-white light, like a white fireball embedded in the eastern sky, illuminating the sky. The scene was completely different from the sky in the urban area. In the spring of Budeze, everything is shining. The pavilion is surrounded by spring green plants and there is a pond next to it. What is presented in front of you is a beautiful spring picture, showing a full of vitality. Spring is early in the South, and spring begins on February 3rd. Today, February 15th, only ten days have passed, and everything is dressed in green again. I suddenly realized why this place is called 23°8. North latitude 23°26 is the dividing line between the tropics and subtropics, and this place is on the edge of the tropics. The spring of the motherland sets sail from here, all the way north.

Do you know these plants, I asked my daughter. There was a beam in the center of the pavilion. It was not very high, but she still couldn't reach it when she jumped, so she took off with a running approach and was having a great time. Obviously, she was not very interested in my question. I don't even know them, she said. My lover said that during the holidays, the teacher assigned homework to write in a diary. Isn’t it a good day to write in a diary? You don’t know how to write about these plants. She was startled for a moment, then quickly took out her electronic watch and started taking pictures of the leaves, oh, this is a reed, this is an iris, this is a bluegrass, this is a fig, this is a carpet grass, she said happily, after a while During that time, she looked up the names of a dozen animals. At this time, a breeze blows, with a slight fragrance, which makes you feel refreshed. The flowers and plants surge with the wind, like a green ocean, which is refreshing and intoxicating. The wildfires are burning, the spring breeze is blowing again, the cold winter has passed, and it is a spring full of vitality. Looking at the green and lively children, I feel that an endless force is growing.

While we were playing, the other two families arrived. The children gathered together, extremely excited, chasing and playing, and the adults hurriedly urged them to go inside. After a while, we came to a green space. The green space was not large. When we arrived, many tents were set up here and there by the first arrivals. There were several swings built on the green space. We were going to set up camp here. The family brought tents and felts. , the adults were scrambling to set up tents and lay blankets, and the children were swinging on the swings chasing butterflies, giggling and laughing. I thought of Su Shi's "Swings Within the Wall and the Road Outside the Wall" and Yang Wanli's "Children's Rush" Chasing yellow butterflies, flying into the cauliflower and nowhere to be found", and Gaoding's village "The grass is long and the orioles are flying in the February sky, the willows are brushing the dike drunk with the spring smoke, the children come back early from school, and they are busy flying kites in the east wind", yes , this is their age. I suddenly realized that I haven’t taken my daughter out to play for a long time. The epidemic is one reason, and the other reason is that I am busy with work and I really can’t leave.

The warm scene seems familiar. I remembered that it was more than 30 years ago. I was 8 years old that year, the same age as my daughter, and my mother was still working as a teacher in a primary school. It was also spring that year, and the school organized teachers and staff to go to Luoyang to see peonies, and each person could bring one family member with him. It was the first time I traveled far away and the first time I entered the city. I faced the endless traffic but didn't know how to get past it. It was the first time I saw a real traffic light. I have the impression that the peonies are in full bloom in Luoyang Wangcheng Park, forming a sea of ??flowers, but we children have no intention of looking at the flowers. Instead, we are chasing and joking with the children. Because we played for too long, we delayed the bus back to our residence and had no way to have a meal. I remember that the meal was also charged per person. The bus fare was 20 cents and the meal was a piece. The adults were very upset about this. , but our children were excited because they sat on a soft seat for the first time.

The sunlight is scattered and scattered from the gaps in the leaves, swaying with the wind, and warm and warm. It was approaching noon, and the temperature was on the high side, making it a bit hot to walk. Some parents suggested that each family purchase an electric tricycle for free from the campground and take their children around for a spin. Everyone unanimously agreed. The forest camp covers a small area, and some areas are still under development. There are green spaces, ponds, zoos, picking gardens and other projects. It cost 50 yuan to rent for 45 minutes. I first took my daughter for a ride, which only lasted 10 minutes. Then my wife took my daughter for a ride. My daughter is not old enough to drive alone. After two laps, she yelled that she was bored and stopped riding. It was still early, so my lover took my mother-in-law around. While my daughter was playing on the swing, she suddenly pointed at her lover and mother-in-law and said to me, "Look, those are my daughter and mother too."

I said yes, now my grandma is old, my parents are in middle age, and you are still young. In a few decades, your parents will be old, and you will grow up. You will have your own children, and you will need to take care of them. You are with me, your mother, and your children; do you still remember the beautiful Spring River Flowers and Moonlight Night that I taught you? Life is endless from generation to generation, and that song, the new leaves in the fragrant forest urge the old leaves, and the flowing water has a wave before it and a wave after it. Wave. My daughter nodded in understanding, said oh, and went back to playing happily.

Sitting on a wooden stake nearby, surrounded by children playing, thinking about the past, as if it was yesterday, I felt as if everything was reappearing, and everything was starting over again. When you enter middle age, there are more things worth remembering. You always feel that every bit of the past is so beautiful, but the current life is hard to describe. When you are trapped in social rules due to growth and cannot extricate yourself, the poems and distant places in the past It is getting further and further away from us. Perhaps all we can do is to take out those good times that we once ignored from our memories, and look at the high-spirited figures inside with yearning. The pear blossoms are pale white, the willows are deep green, and the city is filled with flowers when catkins fly. A single snow plant in the melancholy east column makes life so clear. Sometimes I often wonder what the world looks like in other people's eyes, full of sunshine and smooth sailing, and how others treat this complicated and disorderly life. There are so many living things in the world, everyone has his own life, and everyone has his own attitude towards life. It is the various lives and attitudes that make up this world. One thought, one world. Maybe everyone sees the world differently, but they are all moving forward along the iron law of life and never look back.

Yes, life is endless from generation to generation. Generation after generation of people have created this great group of mankind. Each generation has a mission. When I was a child, my parents were like mountains. They worked hard. They supported that era and raised us. When the hand of time points to today, we have entered the center of the stage at our age, and have taken over the baton from our parents to shoulder the responsibilities of this era. In a few decades, we will We will also grow old, and our children will continue to support their era along our path. Time flies and seasons flow. This is an iron law, a fate, and an endless force. These are not the four seasons of life. Our generation is in the summer, the age when we need to sweat and work hard; our parents are in the autumn, and their children (that is, us) have grown up, got married, and had children. We have retreated to the second line and started to live in our later years, which is an age of great achievements; our ancestors are in the snowy winter. They are in their dying years, but they have experienced hundreds of years of human life, seen through the spring and autumn, and understood the true meaning of life; and we The children are in spring. They have just sprouted and are growing vigorously. They will eventually grow into towering trees.

There is no choice but the flowers fall away, and the familiar swallows return. Maybe the road of life is a closed circle, and the end of the road is reincarnation and the next life. Just like this 23rd and 8th latitude line, spring will always come and flowers will bloom. Maybe this is the answer I want. My own world is destiny, and other people's world is the next life. Live your destiny well and welcome the next life.

The happy time passed quickly. After the tour, our family had lunch at a small restaurant in the park. After the meal, it was already past 3 o'clock in the afternoon. One family said they had guests in the evening and they had to go back to get ready. The other family had other things to do and had to go back after dinner. I checked my phone and found that the return journey was heavily trafficked and took 2 hours, so I decided to go back as well, leaving 23°8 and heading south towards the brighter spring. The traffic volume on the way back was obviously heavier than in the morning. It was already almost 6 o'clock when we got home, the lights were already on the streets, and the Spring Festival atmosphere was once again strong.