Sparrows

Li Gui'an

When I was young, my little friend Xiaomao and I went to shoot sparrows with slingshots on the top of Luobo Chong Mountain. At that time, the Chinese believed that sparrows were harmful birds because they ate food, so shooting sparrows with slingshots was also advocated by the government. I remember that Xiao Mao and I shot more than a dozen sparrows one day, took them back, plucked the feathers off, started barbecue over fire, mixed them with some chili powder and soy sauce, and ate them with gusto. Now that I think about it, I feel sorry for the little creatures.

More than thirty years later, one day I was walking along the roadside of Dongling Temple and saw two sparrows intertwined together, sometimes kissing, sometimes riding each other, and making love to each other. ...I took the opportunity to catch one of them and prepared to take it home to show to my son, but when I wasn't paying attention, the sparrow flew away, so that they could also "love each other"! This reminds me of "Birds in pairs on the tree..." It is a beautiful song "The couple returns home", which vividly sings the joy of the world and the birds in the laughter.

The most unforgettable thing for me was catching a young sparrow in a mobile phone store. I held it in my hand and was trying to find a thread to tie it up, but unexpectedly it flew away. I chased it out of the mobile phone store again. Perhaps because the sparrow's wings were still young, it flew more than ten meters and panted on the sidewalk. I took this opportunity to catch it, tied it with a string and took it home to show to my son. The son felt strange, "Mom, it can still fly..." The sparrow flew onto the screen window and wanted to fly out, but the sand window blocked it. I said, "After dinner, let's release this little creature back into nature!" So after dinner, my child and I cut the thread that tied the sparrow with scissors, went to the balcony, and let it fly. For small birds like sparrows, flying freely in the air is more important than anything else. I released the fledgling sparrow I caught, and it went back to find its mother. It will definitely find its mother and reunite with the other sparrows. For small birds like sparrows, flying freely is the happiest thing. They yearn for freedom, long for freedom, and letting it return to nature will be the greatest gift to them. And my views have also changed a lot. The sparrow is no longer a harmful bird, it is a beneficial bird. It not only brings happy "chirping" to people, but also because they send their loud singing into the world. It not only embodies the harmony between man and nature, but also embodies its insect-eating side. It is a good bird! Sparrow, that childhood mistake has now been corrected.

Cute little sparrow!

May 2011