Chinese Version
06-04-2023， Sunday，Sunny
Last September, after my daughter’s family moved back to Silicon Valley, California, where I lived for nearly 20 years after a four-year absence, I collected more leisure time moments while visiting familiar places, meeting old acquaintances, and refreshing old memories. Now, my cute little grandson Ben dilutes my urge to share my leisure time sweet memories so I have a lot of thoughts which are fermenting from time to time.

It will be Alisa‘s birthday soon. Telling a story of Alisa’s caring nature might be a sweet birthday present for her, as her sweet tooth is getting weaker now.

Alisa is my PhD advisor Prof. Barkatt’s wife. I worked with Alisa in the same laboratory for about 3 years in the early 1990s. Even after over twenty years, her English with a German accent is still very familiar to my ears, and we can easily engage in long enjoyable conversations. I think Alisa is one of my role models in life.

On Christmas Eve in 2022, I went alone to Almaden Valley, where I lived for almost 20 years and walked along the creek trail path. The California’s warm winter made me feel the earth mother’s love as the Massachusetts’ cold winter was still inked in my body. Revisiting an old place during the holiday season, reminiscing about the feeling of walking here many years ago, the awaking feeling intertwined with the fresh consciousness of recent coming back from Massachusetts, I felt a heart-warming pill in my mouth is melting and is full of tenderness and joy, releasing the delicate sweetness of the years.

In the golden afterglow of the afternoon, I saw my favorite chair with the inscription of “Love is like a pebble dropped in the creek. It ripples, extending beyond our horizon. We know that love has graced us and we will treasure that forever.” I went to sit there and closed my eyes, the phone rang, and I looked down. It was Alisa’s text message from Maryland: a photo of candles on the seventh day of the Jewish Hanukkah, because Alisa is a Jewish, she celebrates Hanukkah not Christmas. It is a routine communication method for us to forward the photos of Alisa text messages to her e-mail every time, so that she can forward them to her friends by e-mail because she is not very good at uploading photos from her mobile phone to her e-mail. After forwarding the photo, I called Alisa immediately: “The photo has been forwarded to your e-mail, Happy Hanukkah!” “Thank you! Merry Christmas!”Hearing Alisa’s English with a German accent familiar sweet voice over the phone, I imagined her bright smile and said: “Guess where I am now?” Alisa said: “It’s already dark in Maryland, and we are at home. Are you at home now?” The time difference between Maryland in the east of the United States and California in the west of the United States is three hours, I said: “It’s still daytime in California, the sun is setting, and I’m sitting on a chair I like, there is an inscription on this chair about love. I think the inscription is very suitable for you, because your love is also ‘like a pebble dropped in the creek’.” Alisa said happily after hearing this: “Today I have called forty-four people to wish them happy holiday.” I was so impressed by this number, and I told this story to my daughter at home. The aftertaste is still unique and sweet today and it also inspires me to care about people I know like Alisa.

Happy Birthday, Alisa!

2022年Christmas Eve

1. Visiting an old place during the holiday season generates more delicate sweetness of the years.

[An Old Place] A place nourishes me with words also warms my heart. After eight years, I sat here again and savored “Love is like a pebble dropped in the creek. It ripples, extending beyond our horizon.”Thankful for being loved and loving, happy holidays.

[Jogging] I told one of my high school girl friends: “Jogging for 40 minutes is already very easy for me.” I revisited the old place, saw the familiar milestones, and clocked in with a scientific attitude. 2:32pm to 3:07pm, 45 minutes, 1.75 miles of jogging, very easy.

2. Almaden Valley Scenery

（The Lick Observatory landmark building.）

(Long tree shadows on the empty trail under the blue sky in Almaden Valley)

2014

[Local resort] There is a chair, one and a half miles away from home, facing west and watching the creek, behind the chair is an open-air dining table under a big tree and there is an inscription on the back of the chair: “Love is like a pebble dropped in the creek. It ripples, extending beyond our horizon….”. Sitting on the chair watching the sunset in winter, sunbathing in the golden afterglow of the afternoon and listening to the creek cheerful flow by, it is warm and comfortable.