When I looked at the grade on my math paper my jaw (下巴) almost dropped to the ground: a big “65” in bright red ink. I had never received such a terrible grade before.

    I was so ashamed that when I got home that afternoon I lied to my dad. I told him I got 85 and that the report wouldn't come until the end of the month. Dad smiled. His daughter would never lie about her grade, so he didn't doubt the unusual delay (延迟) of my report.

    A month later, Dad casually (随意地) asked me again about the report at the dinner table. He looked right into my eyes and asked for an answer. Having no choice. I told him that I had in fact got just 65 in my math final. I had lied because I didn't want to let him down.

    For a moment, he just looked at me. I would have preferred a telling off (斥责) than that silence. Finally, Dad said, m a hurt voice, “You have already let me down, with your lie. I am not disappointed at your math score. That is no big deal-on one can be perfect all the time. But I am very disappointed in you. If you can't be honest with your dad. who can you be honest with? It's much easier to achieve a better grade than rebuild someone else's trust in you.”

    Dad's words touched my heart. I couldn't forgive (原谅) myself for having hurt his feelings I took out the report that I had been hiding for weeks, handed to him and apologized, sincerely I realized that my honesty is not only important to me personally, but to those around me that truly care .about my well-being (幸福).

    In one of Shakespeare's plays a character says: “No legacy (遗产) is so rich as honesty.” After the crisis between Dad and me, I began to understand those words.

    The announcements that follow inform you of various First Presbyterian Church programs and events to which you are invited. Please save this publication, take it home and keep it for easy reference.

    Summer Musikgarten—Today

    Musikgarten is for infants (VL) through three years old, but if you have older children, bring them with you during the summer. We don't want to leave anyone out! We'll meet for Summer Musikgarten classes in Room 307 at 9:20-9:50 AM today, and on June 25, July 9, 16, 23, 30, August 13 and 20. If you have questions or for more information, please contact Kathy Middleton (kmidd@mchsi.com; 563-505-0471).

    BTC Book Club Bonus—Monday

    Join us for dessert and a discussion of the book, The Traitor's Wife, by Allison Pataki, led by Lois Boyer-Fitzpatrick. We will meet Monday, June 19 at 12:30 PM in the Parlor. For more information, contact Carol Phoenix (563-332-0980).

    Performing Arts Series—Saturday

    The twenty-fifth anniversary season of the Performing Arts Series concludes with two performances of the classic Broadway musical, My Fair Lady. Lerner and Loewe's most successful collaboration, My Fair Lady has delighted audiences for decades, and we look forward to producing it for you. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students, and can be purchased on the church's website or by calling the church office.

    Tabitha's Circle—Sunday

    All those who sew and make some simple dresses and shorts can join us in Fellowship Hall. The clothes we make are sent to children in Africa, Guatemala, Cambodia and Haiti. Please bring your own sewing machines and invites others who would like to participate. We will have refreshments. Contact Rosen Paulsen (563-355-3165) for questions about this outreach project.

    Ramadan is one of the most important festivals for Muslims. The name of the festival comes from the Arabic month in which it is celebrated. Ramadan is celebrated in countries all over the world, especially in Africa and the Middle East. The time for celebrating Ramadan varies each year. People celebrate it in the ninth month of the Arabic lunar calendar. During Ramadan, people must not eat during the day: from when the sun comes up to when the sun goes down, people celebrating Ramadan will not eat or smoke. When the sun has gone down, however, the celebration begins. People often stay up all night eating singing and dancing.

    In late spring, many people around the world celebrate Easter. The festival is a celebration of spring and it is also a religious holiday. It is the time for Easter bunnies and egg hunts, and of course for eating lots of delicious foods. Easter is celebrated in late March or early April but the exact dates are different form year to year. People celebrate Easter in different ways: in some countries, the Easter Bunny—a big rabbit—will visit and children will go on egg hunts, looking for eggs and candy that have been hidden by their parents. In other countries, Easter is a time for children to dress up like witches and go from door to door asking for candy—much like Halloween in the US. The Easter Bunny and the Easter Egg are popular symbols of the festival.

    Why is pink or purple a color for girls and blue or brown for boys?

    The answer depends largely on cultural values as well as personal experiences. To the Egyptians, green was a color that represented the hope and joy of spring, while for Muslims, it means heaven. Red is a symbol of good luck in many cultures. In China, children are given money in a red envelope to bring good fortune in the New Year. For many nations, blue is a symbol of protection and religious beliefs. Greek people often wear a blue necklace hoping to protect themselves against evils(灾祸).

    People's choice of colors is also influenced by their bodies' reactions toward them. Green is said to be the most restful color. It has the ability to reduce pain and relax people both mentally and physically. People who work in green environments have been found to have fewer stomachaches.

    Red can cause a person's blood pressure to rise and increase people's appetites(食欲). Many decorators will include different shades of red in the restaurant. Similarly, many commercial websites will have a red “Buy Now” button because red is a color that easily catches a person's eye.

    Blue is another calming color. Unlike red, blue can cause people to lose appetite. So if you want to eat less, some suggest that eating from blue plates can help.

    The next time you are deciding on what to wear or what color to decorate your room, think about the color carefully.

    When my vision-challenged daughter was 3, and I was pregnant with my second child, we got her glasses. It was a long process involving many different opticians (配镜师)over the course of a year, because of my daughter's overwhelming desire to scream and fly into a temper any time we tried to have her eyes examined. The fourth optician was amazing while my daughter didn't cooperate, she performed various miracles and managed what she called a “best guess” at her prescription.

    “Start with this,” she said. “When she realizes she can see better, bring her back, and we can try for something more accurate.”

    I didn't want to pay $300 for glasses that might be replaced in a month's time, so I decided to bring her straight to a Walmart optical. Things were going on well, until the optician needed to take an additional measurement, which would involve holding a ruler up to her eyes and measuring the distance between the outer corner of one eye and the inner corner of the other.

    “Are you sure you need the measurement?” I asked. “She's really not cooperative when it comes to the eye-testing stuff.”

    “We definitely need to have it, we can't fill her prescription without it.” the optician said.

    But my daughter would not let the optician anywhere near her face with the small plastic ruler. She started yelling and crying, and we took her off to the side and promised we'd get ice cream afterward if she let the nice lady hold the ruler near her nose! The optician gave us the ruler, thinking we would have an easier time, but when my daughter knew we needed to hold the ruler near her face, which, in toddler logic, meant a life-or-death situation, she prevented us from getting anywhere near her.

    Finally, my husband and I agreed that one of us would have to hold her down and the other would take the measurement. I sat on the floor trying to hold her head still while my husband tried to get an accurate reading on that stupid ruler. Despite her struggle and scream, we finally got it. My daughter stopped crying three seconds later and went back to play as if nothing had happened.

    There is no version of this story where I feel comfortable us even if it was for her own good. I felt awful wondering, if magically know what to say to get her cooperation? The weeks spent with a special book about wearing glasses, telling her how great glasses were... I could feel tears welling up and I thought, “I can't cry. I'm sitting on the floor of a Walmart optical centre. I can't cry here.”

    And there it was the final thing I could not bear. It w already reduced me to sitting on the floor of a Walmart optical p toddler down to press a ruler against her face and do it for the packed Saturday audience of all the Walmart checkout counters. I cried. Big, shoulder-shaking sobs. Sitting right there on the floor of a Walmart, behind the optical counter.

    Five days later, the Walmart optical centre called. They said my daughter's glasses were ready for pickup and I should schedule an appointment with the optician so that we can have them properly fitted. I said I'd be picking up the glasses alone and we would do the fitting another day. She insisted that the fitting was crucial, to which I replied, “I don't know if you were working last Saturday, but my daughter is really not cooperating on this whole glasses thing. I'd prefer to just pick them up.” Silence. Then she said, “I was there last Saturday, I remember you. Absolutely, you can pick them up any time.”

    It is widely accepted that nightmares (噩梦) are a reaction to negative experiences that happen during waking hours. However, some scientists believe that nightmares do have some real benefits. One 2017 study, for example, found that frequent nightmare sufferers rated themselves as more empathetic (有同理心的). They also displayed more of a tendency to unconsciously mirror other people through things like yawning People who have constant nightmares also tend to think further outside the box on psychoanalysis tasks. Some other researchers have found support for the idea that nightmares might be linked to creativity.

    People seeking cure for nightmares were not necessarily more fearful or anxious, but rather had a general sensitivity to all emotional experience. Sensitivity is the driving force behind intense dreams. Heightened sensitivity to threats or fear during the day results in nightmares, whereas heightened passion or excitement may result in positive dreams. And both these forms of dreams may feed back into waking life, perhaps increasing suffering after nightmares, or promoting social bonds and empathy after positive dreams.

    The effects go further still. This sensitivity overflows into awareness and thoughts －people who have a lot of nightmares experience a dreamlike quality to their waking thoughts. And this kind of thinking seems to give them a creative edge. For instance, studies show that such people tend to have greater creative talent and artistic express and people who often have nightmares also tend to have more positive dreams than the average person.

    The evidence points towards the idea that, rather than disturbing normal activity, people who are unfortunate in having a lot of nightmares also have a dreaming life that is at least as creative, positive and vivid as it can be distressing and terrifying. What's more, this imaginative richness is unlikely to be limited to sleep, but also is filled with waking thoughts and daydreams. Even after people wake up and shake off the nightmare, in other words, a mark of it stays behind, possessing them throughout the day.