My mother asked me to call my grandmother. What could we possibly have a1about? Nothing! I just did what she told me and2called my grandmother.

    When she3the phone, I planned. to have a small,10-minute exchange.4, she invited me to lunch at her house so we could5together. Hesitantly, I agreed.

    After hanging up the phone I immediately6agreeing to the lunch date on Saturday.

    Surprisingly, my Saturday morning wasn't7.I found it was nice to see her. I forgot the time8her stories about her recent trip to Europe and her sewing class. I wasn't9that 60-year-old people had a social life. It turned out that he r10wasn't as mundane（平凡的）as I thought. I was happy to have spent time with her. We planned to meet11at her house. My mom didn't have to12me any more.

    This time I didn't feel the gloom（忧郁）.13 I wanted to ask were building up in my mind: What was my grandfather like? What did you do at my age?

    As we looked through pictures, I was14.I had never seen, nor imagined, my grandmother as a young girl. She reminded me of myself. I learned that as humans, we15human experiences, no matter what age.

    She told me about the time she and her friends went swimming in the lake late at night and the first time she met my16."You would have adored him. He was the funniest man I'd ever met." We sorted through three shoeboxes of photographs, each with a17story.

    Ever since that18phone call to my grandmother, we have talked at least once a week. I regret not calling her earlier. She has19me what can't be learned in a textbook: being open to new things, enjoying the simple things, and appreciating what life has given me. I have20a new perspective（视角）on life.

    In my living room, there is a plaque(匾) that advises me to “Bloom(开花) where you are planted.” It1me of Dorothy. I got to know Dorothy in the early 1980s，when I was teaching Early Childhood Development through a program with Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky. The job responsibilities required occasional visits to the2of each teacher in the program. Dorothy 3 in my memory as one who “bloomed” in her remote area.

    Dorothy taught in a school in Harlan County, Kentucky, Appalachian Mountain area. To get to her school from the town of Harlan, I followed a road 4around the mountain. In the eight-mile journey, I crossed the same railroad track five times, giving the possibility of getting5by the same train five times. Rather than feeling6by this drive through the mountains, I found it depressing. The7level was shocking and the small shabby houses gave me the greatest feeling of 8.

    From the moment of my arrival at the little school, all gloom(忧郁)9. Upon arriving at Dorothy's classroom, I was 10 with smiling faces and treated like a queen. The children had been prepared to show me their latest projects. Dorothy told me with a big smile that they were11poke greens salad and cornbread for “dinner” (lunch). In case you don't 12 , poke greens are a weed type plant that grows wild, especially on poor ground.

    Dorothy never13reports of exciting activities of her students. Her 14 never cooled down. When it came time to15for the testing and interviewing required to receive her Child Development Associate Certification, Dorothy was16. She came to the assessment(评价) and17in all areas. Afterward, she18me to the one-and-only steak house in the area to19her victory, as if she had received her Ph.D. degree. After the meal, she placed a little box containing an old pen in my hand. She said it was a family heirloom (传家宝), but to me it is a treasured symbol of appreciation and pride that cannot be 20 with things.

    I was sitting in the far back in a pizza house when I noticed the man, about thirty years old, carrying a pizza box. He sat down at the table to my right and then 1 his large dirty paper bag of clothing down on the floor. Obviously, this man was homeless and 2 a bath. He picked up the one small slice（薄片）of pizza and very slowly, very carefully, he began to eat, taking very little 3.

    He finally finished his meal and did something that I would never 4. He turned the box on its corner and slid the few5bits into one corner. Then he 6 his index finger（食指）and tried to pick up the small bits.

    Oh, how much it hurt me once again to see myself 7 I was thirty years ago. No food, no 8, and no clean clothes. Most of my past life had always been 9 to that of the young man and it all came back to me 10. The muscles in my neck began to tighten and my eyes began to burn and water up. I coughed a bit, trying to clear my 11 and get myself back together.

    I got four large slices of pizza from the counter and sat them down on his table, saying, “I thought you 12 like to have a few slices.”

    I did not stop at all but walked around behind him. As I passed him, I reached out and13him on the back, just one time, very softly with my hand. I hope that man knows that someone, someplace,14 him as a human being. And I am so 15 that I have never forgotten what it feels like to be down, out, dirty and hungry.

    Anna was very picky(挑剔的)about food. She never ate the wonderful pizzas or ice creams her mother made, which was her parents'1. She just ate other things. Anna was2 ， but her parents were both fat. Their likes were her dislikes. 3 ， everyone wondered who she had taken after…Anna's parents thought she was ill.

    One day, they went to see a4. He took them to a machine. Then he put a plate of fish in front of them, and5on the machine.

    It started playing sounds: waves'6sound and the songs of seabirds. After some time the doctor7the fish with fruit and vegetables. The sounds of the sea8 ， and there came the sounds of gentle wind, birdsong, and rain. All of them9the beautiful sounds of nature, but the doctor10the plate again, and this time it was a dish of meat. The machine started making lively sounds: the sound of11animals. Still quite pleasant. Then the doctor brought a strong smelling pizza. The machine seemed to 12down. Instead of beautiful sounds, out 13noisy sounds. The noise was so disturbing that the family had to ask the doctor to change the14of food. The doctor brought them ice creams, burgers, and candy…but they thought the sounds were still15. Finally Anna's parents16 the doctor to bring fruit back.

    "Anna isn't ill, "said the doctor. "She can understand each type of food's own17. It comes from where the food was born, raised, and18. Anna wants to eat the foods whose music is 19. That's why she's slim and healthy."

    These days, they all look slim, 20from then on, in the house pizzas, burgers, puddings, and ice creams were replaced by fruit, vegetables, and fish.

    What did your dinner sound like today?

    When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my 1. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin; I wasn't a 2student; I talked too much; I was too3, always feeling superior to(胜过)others, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. 4, I became very angry. I ran to my father with 5in my eyes.

    He 6 to me quietly, and then he asked. "Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn't you ever 7 what you're really like? Well, you now have that girl's 8. Go and9a list of everything she said and mark the points that are10. Pay no attention to the other things she said."

    I did11 he told me. To my great12, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn't 13 (like being very thin), but a good number I could – and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I went to a fairly 14picture of myself.

    I brought the list back to Daddy. He15to take it. "That's just for you," he said. "You know16than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to17, not just close your ears in 18, feeling hurt when something said about you is true, you'll find it of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your affairs. Don't 19your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do."

    Daddy's advice has always 20 me at many important moments. In my life, I've never had a better piece of advice.

    I guess I was spoiled at first. I was an only child, 1 by all relatives. Up until I was eight years old, life was 2. Then along came Grant and everything 3.

    Grant is my little brother. He was born a month earlier, so he needed a lot of extra 4. My parents still 5 me, but I was no longer the center of the universe. I was angry about the change. And at first, I was also 6 with Grant.

    Fortunately, Grants didn't cause any real 7 in his growth. Gradually, he developed the habit of 8 himself to me. My parents want me to be 9 to him, but I found him totally annoying. By the time I became a teenager, he was, at five, my shadow, 10 me around, copying my every move, and asking endless questions.

    Still, in spite of my unhappiness towards him, I began to 11 the time we spent together.

    As time went on, we developed connections and partnership, becoming more 12. Grant stopped asking to go along on dates with me, and I set aside time to go fishing with him. He cheered me on at my soccer games, and I 13 to coach his T-ball team. He became less 14 and more of a buddy. I became more patient, more able to 15 and more likely to accept the unconditional love he 16.

    Today I am happy to say that Grant and I are a 17. We have already 18 how he will come visit me when I am in college. It will be hard to be 19, but I know that we will always be close, if not in age or distance, we will be close in the long journey shared by 20.