My mother loves flowers. As soon as warm weather comes around, you will find her planting, watering and weeding over everything. For many years we lived next door to each other, and she spent as much time in my garden as she did her own. After the flowers became plentiful each summer, she would cut colorful bouquets (花束) to enjoy inside the house－both hers and mine. I would often come home from work and find a beautiful arrangement (布置) of fresh flowers on my coffee table.

    Shortly before Christmas one year, a local flower shop offered a bouquet month special. It seemed to be a great way to thank her for all of the flowers she had given me through the years. After the holidays, in early January, I drove her to the flower shop to pick up her first month's bouquet. The small fresh colorful bouquet would hardly fill a small vase (花瓶).

    I was so embarrassed(尴尬的). However, after we returned home, she began to arrange the flowers she had received. “Mom, I'm sorry,” I told her. “I can't believe how skimpy that bouquet is.” She looked at me and smiled. “It's okay,” she said. “It allows me to better enjoy the beauty of each one.”

    Mom's words helped me to realize something bigger and more important－when we have too many good things, we often fail to enjoy the beauty of each one.

      Thanks, Mom, for helping me understand that less is sometimes more.

    Children's books are everywhere. New ones, old ones, made-into-movie ones. It seems as if the children's publishing industry is developing rapidly. Here are some books every young child should have in their book diet.

    The Peter Rabbit books by Beatrix Potter

    It's best to have a copy of the original stories, with the original drawings done by Beatrix Potter herself. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit are the delightful tales of Peter Rabbit. Included in the series are also cute little stories about mice. These books have sweet stories that teach lessons.

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

    Dr. Seuss is, of course, the master of children's literature. Dr. Seuss teaches children to play with language and have a good time reading. The pictures are wonderful and inspire lots of fun questions. Big kids will like re-reading Dr. Seuss along with their younger sisters and brothers.

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

    The story of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard is shown by simple pencil drawings that help children use their imaginations. The story explores the city of Boston as the Mallards look for a place to get their ducklings safely across the city. Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack are good examples of obedience(顺从) as they follow Mrs. Mallard through the city.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar(毛虫) and other books by Eric Carle

    The Eric Carle books have delightful pictures, full of bright colors and interesting detail. In The Very Hungry Caterpillar, children see the life cycle of a butterfly through the eyes of a caterpillar that is hungry. The children will laugh at all the food the caterpillar eats and be overjoyed by the beautiful butterfly at the end. All the Eric Carle books are fun for kids and parents, with simple ideas and beautiful art.

    There are many children's books available, and this list is only the beginning. However, these are all essential to a good children's library.

    If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how "foolish" the Finnish people are.

    Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high­class Benz with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one，tell the driver to drop you at any place，say that you have some business to attend to，and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least signs of anxiety.

    The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests，but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration cards to the waiter. With such a loose check，you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.

The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss at the rate. From then on they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.

    With so many loopholes(漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take "petty advantages". But the strange thing is that all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fares after they have attended to their business and that not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.

    China will soon issue licenses for the commercialization(商业化) of 5G, as the country has already established(建立)a competitive advantage in the superfast wireless technology.

    The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said 5G is entering a critical period of commercial deployment(部署)globally and China's 5G industry has established a competitive advantage through a combination of innovation(创新) and open cooperation.

    Many foreign companies, including Nokia and Intel, have participated in China's technical 5G tests. These foreign companies have already participated in three phases of tests organized by China to get their 5G products and solutions ready for commercial use in the country.

    "With joint efforts of all parties, China has built a foundation for commercialization of 5G," the ministry said, adding it will issue commercial 5G licenses in the near future, a clear sign China will soon officially enter the first year of 5G.

    China's big three telecom carriers are forecast to spend 900 billion to 1.5 trillion yuan ($134 billion to $223 billion) in total on 5G network construction from 2020 to 2025, according to a report from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. In comparison, Chinese telecom operators spent 720 billion yuan on 4G network construction from 2014 to 2018.

    In 2019, China Mobile plans to build 30,000 to 50,000 5G base stations this year, while China Telecom is looking to have 20,000.

    Austin Perine, a four-year-old boy, discovered that sympathy for the less fortunate can produce superhuman results.

    Once Austin's father, TJAustin, took Austin to the Firehouse Ministries, a local shelter that provides housing, food, and other services for homeless men. As they drove by the redbrick building, they saw a group of 25 homeless men standing on the street corner. "Dad, they look sad," Austin said. "Can we take them some food and make them smile?"

    That day, Austin used his allowance to buy each man a Burger King sandwich and handed the food out himself.

    Seeing what their presence meant to the men at the ministry, Austin and TJ returned the next week. After he returned every week for five weeks, word of Austin's acts of kindness spread through social media and national news outlets. Burger King jumped aboard, agreeing to donate $1,000 a month for an entire year toward the cause. Soon, churches and shelters across the country began inviting Austin to come and distribute food in other poor areas. Whereas before Austin and TJ could feed 25 to 50 people at a time, now, thanks to corporate and community support, they can feed 800 to 2,000 people at once.

    But Austin isn't just filling bellies. He's improving the lives of those he meets. On that first trip to Firehouse Ministries, TJ and Austin talked to a man named Raymont. The respect Austin gave 41-year-old Raymont touched the man. TJ helped Raymont collect all the credentials(资格) he needed to get a driver's license. The license helped Raymont get a job. And with money in the bank, he was able to rent his own apartment. All that was made possible because a little boy took the time to care.

Two women going on a journey to green their city is the best way to describe the founders of Utility, Portland's low-waste and reuse company. It started in January 2019 and opened its first retail shop in April. Its founders, Rebecca Rottman and Nadine Appenbrink, are deeply committed to sustainability and supporters of zero waste.

They started Utility as a second job for both and as a personal journey, looking for clean products that didn't come in plastic. Their goal is to reduce the amount of single-use plastics by allowing people to bring their own reusable containers when they buy environmental friendly home and personal care items.

Every week the women teamed up with local stores to sell their goods and to refill products for returning customers. Now they are operating only online for pickup or local delivery in the Portland area. It is really easy, the company said. Just shop online and choose a container. Then select pickup or delivery. The products include all-natural dish bar soap and a wide variety of plastic-free kitchen tools.

While not completely zero waste, Utility is striving to get extremely close. Appenbrink said, "We are all on a journey. And we want to be as approachable as possible. Utility is to raise awareness about this lifestyle." They are focused on careful growth because Utility will never ship products because of the carbon footprint involved in shipping.

There are zero waste stores in other communities, like Clean Kilo in Birmingham UK, but they are real brick and mortar (实体的) buildings. Utility's concept is so simple that it can be followed almost anywhere. Zero waste markets are the way to the circular economy that is needed to stop plastic waste, reduce our carbon footprint and have a sustainable future.