At my heaviest I weighed 370 pounds. I had a very poor relationship with food: I used it to 1bad feelings, to make myself feel better, and to celebrate. Worried about my health, I tried many different kinds of 2 but nothing worked. I came to believe that I could do nothing about my 3.

    When I was 50, my weight problem began to affect me 4 . I didn't want to live the rest of my life with this 5 weight any more.

    That year, I6 a seminar where we were asked to create a project that would touch the world. A seminar leader shared her 7story —she had not only 125 pounds, but also raised $25,000 for homeless children.

   8 by her story, I created the As We Heal(痊愈), the World Heals 9. My goal was to lose 150 pounds in one year and raise $50,00010 a movement founded 30 years ago to end hunger. This combination of healing myself and healing the world11 me as the perfect solution.

    12I began my own personal weight program, I was filled with the fear that I would 13 the same difficulties that beat me before. While the 14 hung over my head, there were also signs that I was headed down the right 15. I sent letters to everyone I knew, telling them about my project. It worked perfectly. Donations began 16in from hundreds of people.

    Of course, I also took some practical steps to lose weight. I consulted with a physician（内科医生）, I hired a fitness coach, and I began to eat small and 17meals. My fund-raising focus also gave me new motivation to exercise 18.

    A year later, I19my goal: I lost 150 pounds and raised $50,000! I feel that I've been given a second life to devote to something that is 20 and enormous.

I had never expected such an answer from my son.

    I was 28 at the time and my son had just been1 into elementary school, and was sitting on a park bench(长凳) with me, telling me all about his friends and teachers in the new school. He was extremely2 , I could tell. Looking up into the cloudy blue sky while I 3 , I was having a hard time thinking of questions to ask him about his new4 , probably because he was answering every single one of them before I even5  them.

    Being in America, there were people of many different races and 6  that lived here, 7  I decided to ask him about those people. He loved8 , and if he heard someone who had a different 9  or something like that, he would ask them where they were from. It was 10  for me. I thought he was being rude and didn't 11  it. But the people would always12  and tell him where, whether it was the UK, China, you name it. 13 , he would get into his seat in my car and demand that I take him to the 14  so that he could learn about those places. I would 15  do it, giving him every bit of 16  he craved(渴望). He would even tell me fun facts, things that I didn't know about. He was 17  the word “foreigner”, even though he had no idea what it 18 . I signed and spoke, “So, David, are there any 19  at your school?” He looked at me 20  the biggest smile I had ever seen, swing his legs back and force on the bench.

    “No, Daddy. Just kids.”

    It was a hot day in Bangkok (曼谷). I was walking out of the busy Grand Palace, and some 1Thai teens started asking me questions. Noticing that I was2, they were interested and wanted to know more.

    “Oh, so lonely!” they said to me when they learned I was,indeed,3 solo for the long journey. I smiled and shrugged. They didn't know I've 4 been alone.

    I'm surprised by how much more outgoing I've become. Instead of putting my5down and ignoring the person who may be6me on the sidewalk, now I smile and say hello.

    The only bad thing is the fleeting (短暂的) nature of the relationship one builds on the7. I've felt sad more than a couple of times over parting ways8a fellow traveler. But there are always9friends and possibilities just the next town over.

    Part of the10of taking this trip was the knowledge that I'd be doing this alone. At first, I tried to get friends to11with me for various legs of the journey. I asked close friends, then even not-so-close12, then slowly realized that I might never travel if I13around for a time when a friend of mine would be free to14me.

    If I was really going to do this, it would have to be alone.

    As it turns out, traveling alone is the best15I could have made. You always have to make16considerations for others when you travel with others. Sometimes, you have to do things you don't feel like doing.

    Solo travel is amazing. And really,17I truly want and seek out18, I am never alone. I always have a group. I never feel19. Sometimes, being alone forces you to reach out to people you might not otherwise have ever 20.

    So don't fear traveling alone. It's the best thing there is.

    One of the most inspiring quotes (名言) I ever heard was by Brian Tracy. He said: "The 1 between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people 2 many more times than unsuccessful people."

    I deeply understood the 3 of the quote soon after my fist book was published.

    I was living in Atlanta at the time and 4 my fist signing sale for my new book at the phoenix and Dragon, the largest bookstore in the city. Although a nice sign was placed outside the room 5 images of both me and my book, The 9 Insights of the Wealthy Soul, not a single customer entered the room. 6 each minute passed, I became increasingly 7.

    At 6:25 pm, just before the store's 8, I began to get myself ready to leave. At that moment, just when I couldn't fell any 9, a middle-aged couple walked into the room. I managed to 10 my emotions and introduced myself and my book.

    The couple turned the pages each other, and the husband 11 to his wife. She then told me, "I think we'll get the book."

    Despite the impulse (冲动) to jump 12, and hold their hands to thank them for being my 13 readers, I realized the woman was trying to say something else.

    "The 14 we're buying it is that our son died two years ago," she said. "Maybe your book will help us 15 it."

    At that moment, I knew if never sold a copy of the book, my four years of 16 had been meaningless.

    Although I would have many more challenging years 17 my book became a bestseller, this couple's story was all the 18 I needed at that point to keep me 19.

    Thanks to them, I would realize that the greatest of lives are made all in the same way: One challenge … one challenge … one difficulty … one step …and one small 20 at a time.

    I never thought I would be a "runner". I was the girl who1slowest in the PE class. A few years ago, I was walking with a group of2in the Race(比赛) for the Cure, a 5km race designed to3money for the fight against breast cancer(癌), 4one lady caught my5.

    She was one of the weakest-looking women I've ever seen. She must have been close to seventy years old,6a T-shirt with the word "Survivor". She was so small that it seemed as if she could even be7by a strong wind. But, she was running. And she was8me and my group of friends. She ran slowly, but 9- as if each step pushed her cancer further into her past. Right at that moment, I10that in the next Race for the Cure, I'd be running along with her.

    A week later, I found myself in the11, running on the treadmill(跑步机). Three minutes after I started, my face was bright red. I felt like my lungs were going to burst. I12slow down to a walk. I thought of the13at the race. I kept it up. I was able to go a little14each time. Three and a half minutes. Four minutes. Five.

    A year later, I was15at the Race for the Cure, but this time, I16with the runners. When the race started, the other runners passed me by. I ran forward. I17if I'd be able to do it. But then, I remembered the18woman. I ran as fast as I could until I finally crossed that finish line. I had just19my first race! I looked down at my legs, amazed. They had done something I'd never thought20. I have never felt stronger than at that moment. And I knew that I wanted to do it again.

    When the 28-year-old farmer Ureta met 17-year-old Graciela in his hometown Pampa, they fell in love. Two years later, they 1 and settled down (定居)on the farm where Ureta had been brought up.

    Graciela had many big 2 for the farm in her mind. One day when she was on a 3 over Pampa, Graciela suddenly 4 that another farm looked like a milking pail (桶). Graciela thought her family could create something even more 5 on their own farm-a huge forest 6 like her favorite musical instrument-the guitar.

    But Ureta didn't take his wife's 7 seriously, saying, "We'll talk about it later." Later 8 came. In 1977, Graciela died suddenly of brain cancer at the 9 age of 25 while carrying their fifth child. After his wife's death, Mr. Ureta 10 not satisfying her wish. A few years later, Ureta decided that the best way to honor his wife would be to 11 the big work of art.

    After the local government 12 to help with the project, Ureta and his children took it on their own. One by one, they 13 about 7,000 trees into the "shape of a guitar". It took a few seasons for the trees to take roots(生根),but Ureta's 14 paid off.

    Watching the forest grow over the years gave Graciela's children 15 "It was the closest thing possible to having my mother alive," Maria Julia, Ureta's second daughter, said.