I swing as if I’m getting closer to the turquoise domes of the Sakhi Shrine. I get closer to the sky too. Of all the playground equipment, I like the swing the most because my mother says, “Your father went to heaven!”

My mother and I visit the Sakhi Shrine every year to celebrate Norouz. This is a place where all the people of Afghanistan like to be on Norouz and hope for a good year. My mother says: “Norouz is beautiful all over the world. But in Kabul, it is more beautiful.”

I say: “I wish my father was here too to push me on the swing.”

My mother says: “The martyrs are always alive and wish us well.”

This time when I came to the Sakhi Shrine, I felt that it was my father who was pushing me on the swing.