Life today is changeable and fast moving. Nights seem to come after days twice as quickly as they did some years ago. Every day from morning to evening we see numerous faces flashing by. We hardly manage to notice the ones we have seen before. We thread our ways through the crowd and fail not to compare it with a dense wood where all the trees are the same and you can easily get lost if you don't leave bread crumbs behind. So when you feel that the darkness is thickening and your head is spinning because of all those oaks and pines you turn back and bravely walk away from the mess and fuss directed with the crumbs you have left.

Your track takes you to the place where time does not fly at supersonic speed but calmly rustles like leaves. You go to the people who rush to the door when hear you walking and warmly greet you when you come in. You hurry up to see those ones who smile at the sight of you and whose attentive look penetrates deep inside your soul and fail to stay indifferent to your sorrows and troubles.

You always get amazed at their patience and inexhaustible warmth, though you manage to quarrel with each one for more than twice a day. You love them with all your heart and soul in spite of the fact that sometimes the bouts of irritation turn you into an unbearable monster and make you forget about all the warm feelings which keep you high rise in the hours of dawn.

There are spots even on the Sun, as wise people say. So the sun of the family is not an exception.

Very often returning from the Wood we have already mentioned, we long for hearty arms and kind words but get the things we would like to avoid. We hear the words of blame and reproach, and in our turn we respond in the same way.

There are some kinds of such "magic" phrases.

The first (the most common but not less annoying) is: "you are irresponsible and careless". And that is caused by your late coming and a couple of bad marks for the tests. Is it really the reason to get angry? I clearly understand that I am not right to return too late, but summer evenings can be so charming. I realize that my studies should be my first care. Yes, they should. But sometimes it is just impossible to keep from having a walk with friends or watching new movies on TV.

The other is: "your friends are not suitable for you" and a long list of adjectives is added to describe your unsuitable friends. Well, Mum, they are not as terrible as you consider them to be. They are funny and full of sympathy. They listen to me and don't faint if I want to color my hair or to buy "that cool T-short". And by the way I can be definitely called "unsuitable and strange".

Then your loved parents, aunts and grannies all together say that you have muddled your wits and you'd better think of your life and come to your senses. And you keep back that you'd better stay on your own as you have a lot of aims and goals.

Of course you understand that it's quite easy to loose your head as the people around can take you for a ride or make you follow them. So you want your family to be your support and rest. And they really are.

You see the truth in their eyes. You feel it in their warm arms. You catch it in their boring admonitions. And after they finish all those edifying lectures you smile and whisper that in spite of all the insults you have just swallowed they are the best people in the world. 

They are my family, the family which helps me to stay in a strong belief that I can be better and I have enough power to strive for my dream.

Today in this huge hostile world with its houses, cars and people clustering around, it is so easy to become lost, as you are only a little man on this tremendous planet. You are as such until you are one of this indifferent crowd, but your size comes to a norm at that very moment when you cross the threshold of your sweet home.