The Loofa Squash
Observations from life, translated…
The elderly woman is in her eighties, her husband passed away, she doesn’t live with her children, lived alone, in a three-story building.
This alley, is a path that she must pass through every day as she’d gone out. At the time when she passed through the street, she saw the leaves all over the places, and, she’d sweep up the mess, to keep the street cleanly. And, the leaves that were swept up were piled, in that corner of the street, becoming a natural kind of fertilizer.
This spring, the elderly woman used the corner of the street to plant some luffa. Loosening up the dirt, setting up the racks, she’d done it on her own, not having anybody to help her. Don’t be mistaken at the way she appeared, the racks were tied up very tightly, she’d beaten out a lot of the younger generations on the skills of putting the racks up. Although she’s elderly, and had to take medications daily, for her osteoporosis, the elderly still kept pushing the cart, and, gone to water, to de-weed the patch she’d planted from day to day.
Maybe, it’s because of the sun, these loofas are misbehaving, wouldn’t climb up the racks like they were supposed to, they’d more often, followed the messy bushes, here, and there, playing hide and seek, and, even if the squashes were big enough, they were very hard to see, and so, the elderly woman, because there was no other way, had my husband, to help her. With my husband’s sharp eyes, as well as the elderly woman’s way of scanning the area like a radar, plus a knife, tied to a long stick of bamboo, that looked like the knife of the God of War, swoosh, all those loofas that tried to hide behind the camouflage, all turned into food on the plates.
Because of the organic ways of planting, the loofa squashes are all very sweet, and, those who’d eaten it, had nothing but commends for them, and the people would ask the elderly woman for the seeds to plant, wanted to enter into the group of self-planters themselves. Not only that, the elderly woman also got some of the waters extracted from the loofa, and, she’d given the bottles of the waters to her daughters and daughters-in-law for the sake of skin care.
Although she is already eighty, with the problem of osteoporosis, but, this sort of a lifestyle she kept, benefitting others, while living a fulfilled life, is truly amazing. I watched her, I couldn’t help but hoped, that if I could be like her, when I’m eighty, wouldn’t that be a wonder!
And so, this, is another example of aging well, the elderly woman found something to occupy her time, to give meaning to her own life, and, by planting these loofas, she not only had something to occupy her time, she’d also made friends, a good way to live out one’s elderly years.
Life, the Obstacle Course 