As I approach the place in my car, everything around me slowed down. The trees no longer whizzed by, the cars around pass by slower, the motorcycle hobbled at the side, the clouds became stagnant and the roads became more vivid. It’s almost like time slowed down.

I stopped the car at the red lights. I look around aimlessly, sensing my own heart rate slowing down, my breathing deeper and softer.

Unknowingly it is green again, this is one of the places you don’t really stare at the traffic lights in agitation. I ambled my car along. As I move in closer to the place, my mind moves in closer to my heart. A sense of quiet peace slowly engulfing me.

I sigh a sigh of nostalgia. I smile a smile of childlike innocence.

Sometimes when we went far enough, we learn and experience new things that may enrich our lives in many ways. We see that there is more than meets the eye, we learn to look beyond and question our perceptions. We learn that there are many sadness in the world and yet people still fight on despite it all. We learn that although there may be evil but goodness will outshine and outweigh it and in the end prevails. We learn that people are not always out to bring you harm but instead they are just like you, curious and always ready with open heart and open mind. The world is vast, there are lots to see, to understand, to gain insight and then to embrace.

But sometimes we need a reset. We need to go back to where we came from to realign our hearts and minds. As a tree, our branches may reach out far and wide, our leaves bristling happily in many winds, our roots extend further and further making our mark in the world, yet there is always a part of us, a core root that have grown in since the beginning that has extended deep in, holding strong. It is the root of the beginning, where we started out as seedlings. And when we tap into that root, we find a sense of belonging, we know where we came from, it reinforces where we have been and it validates where we are going.

I breathe a breath of relief. I laugh a laughter of delight.

I slowed down at a junction and stopped. I watch slowly as an old man with bones jutting out of his wrinkled skin struggled by on his worn out bicycle. Not wanting to interrupt my current moment with thoughts, I gave a passing look of empathy and then nudge my car on slowly towards the place I grew up in, the place I called home. Towards my core root.