A couple in South Carolina has been eagerly seeking an organ donor. They haven't found one1 . But they did find something else: friends.

Larry Swilling and his wife Jimmie Sue have been happily 2 for 56 years. So happily, in fact, that Larry has now come to realize he can't 3without his wife. "She's my heart," he said. The problem with Jimmie Sue is that she4a kidney(肾). Jimmie Sue was born with only one, and now that doesn't 5. She needs a transplant but neither her husband, nor anyone tested in her family, is a 6 match.

    Jimmie Sue is trying to get on a donor list, but the7is about two or three years long and that's for a kidney from a dead donor. Transplant patients who get their kidneys from living donors tend to live8. That is why Larry decided to try to ask for it, from total strangers.

"I don't9what people think," Larry said. He tells his wife, "I'm going to10you a kidney." And on the street, wearing a signboard "Need kidney for my wife", he's not shy in asking 11 :"Could I use your kidney?" For the last couple weeks, Larry, at 77, has been walking all over his hometown and the surrounding towns-basically12a kidney. He didn't really think it would work.13he said, "I had to do something." He didn't feel14when the phone rang. "I'm willing to donate a kidney for your15," one caller said. "I'd like nothing more than to help you out," said another.

Believe it or not, over the last few days the 16 hasn't stopped ringing. Hundreds of people who either saw his sign or heard about it have 17 . One volunteer said, "I've got two, but I 18 need one." Larry hasn't found a match for his wife, but at least he has already had enough volunteers and 19 enough awareness to save someone. "If I get a kidney, it's fine. If I don't, I hope someone else does," the wife said. And that's why Larry is still out there, appealing to the 20 of strangers for the love of his wife.

    During the war, my husband was stationed at an army camp in a desert in California. I went to live there in order to be1him. I hated the place. I had never2been so unhappy. My husband was ordered out on a long-term duty, and I was left in a tiny shack alone. The heat was3-almost 125 ^°F even in the shade of a cactus(仙人掌).4a soul to talk to. The wind blew non-stop, and all the food I ate, and the every air I breathed, were5with sand, sand, sand!

    I was so sorry for myself that I wrote to my parents. I told them I was6 and coming back home. I said I couldn't stand it one minute longer. I 7be in prison! My father answered my 8with just two lines-two lines that will always sing in my9 two lines that completely changed my life:

    Two men looked out from prison bars

    One saw the mud, the other saw the stars

    I read those two lines10I was ashamed of myself. I made up my mind I would find out what was good in my present 11 I would look for the stars.

    I made friends with the natives, and their 12 amazed me. They gave me presents of their favorite artworks which they had13to sell to tourists. I studied the delightful forms of the cactus. I watched for the desert sunsets, and14for seashells that had been left there millions of years ago when the desert had been an ocean15.

    What brought about this16change in me? The desert hadn't changed,17I had. I had changed my 18. And by doing so, I changed an unhappy experience into the most amazing19of my life. I was excited by this new world that I had discovered I had looked out of my self-created prison and20the stars.

    When I was in the third grade, Mother's day came around much too quickly; I found myself empty-handed with nothing to give my mom on her special day. So I was1when an announcement over the loudspeaker said that one of the older grades would be2pins(胸针)that said “Number-One Mom”. It may not sound like much, but to an 8-year-old it's3.

    So each day I4myself that the following day I would bring the money to buy the pin, but I always forgot. And I was5when the principal(校长)and a few of the older kids selling pins came into my6and announced that it was the last day to buy them.

    I always7my principal. She could be sweet, but sometimes she could be 8. If you break9, she was quick to set you straight, so I remained as disciplined as a 10before her.

    On this day, however, my principal was in a good11. And she must have heard me tell my classmates I'd12my money again. I wasn't crying, but she knew I really wanted to buy a13.

After she left, I got called to her office. I'd never been there. So I was terrified. When I arrived14, she told me to come to her desk, and she pulled out the pin I'd had my eye15for days.

    “The kids gave me this to give to my16,” she began. “But my mom passed away, so I want you to17it.”

    Taking the pin, I looked at it in my this hands. I didn't know what to say. I probably18her and walked back to class, and proudly presented this19gift to my mother.

    I don't know if my mom still has the pin, and I don't know20the principal remembers giving it to me. But I will never forget that act of kindness from someone I'd never expected it from.

    As a banker, Chip Paillex had never planted so much until he moved to rural Pittstown, New Jersey, seven years ago. 1by farms, he quickly became interested in growing and rented a 30-by-30-foot land. One weekend, he 2tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant—enough to feed his family for the summer.

He ended up with so much 3that he couldn't give it away. Thus he founded a local food 4, and by the time he delivered his last5, he had 6120 pounds of fresh vegetables.

    The following year, with a handful of 7from his church and a memorable name “America's Grow-a-Row”, Paillex planted,8,and harvested 2,500 pounds of vegetables, all of which he donated to food banks. Later he had more volunteers, rented more land and donated more vegetables.

    Paillex also 9 local school kids. On a 10Friday morning in May, 40 third and fifth graders trooped onto a freshly plowed field, each 11with a spade. Squatting or kneeling in teams of two, they loosened the dirt, then carefully12the plants .Several rows later, they eagerly lined up to seed corn under a hot mid-morning sun. Nobody 13.

    “The 14makes kids know there are people 15, says Paillex, “and it plants the seed for giving back. When they become tomorrow's 16, it will be much more possible for them to 17 their coworkers and employees to get 18 in something like this.

    “Paillex makes people want to 19,” says Colleen Duerr, a mother of two who has signed on as an 20“Grow-a-Row” member. “And families love this. Pallex has given us a way to raise our kids with a giving heart.”

The snow arrived earlier than predicted as I1 grocery bags into the Chevy's trunk and shut the hatch. Several feet of snow already covered our community, and this new2 was, of course, another cruel3 . "It'll probably be the disaster of this century, "I complained, thinking about the past few difficult years. Id4 the illness and the financial loss, but something else was5 me —the hopelessness that results from6 goals, 

Usually a positive person of7 , I had always viewed life as a series of problems to8 . 

Though I thought I'd handled the dilemmas well, I hadn't9 that the real me, the one whose passion for life had10 others, had burned out. In the past year, I had been faced with11 choices, and I'd made critical12 . Now I was afraid to trust my judgment and my future. 

When nighttime arrived, I decided to take a walk. Outside, my feet seemed to be13 in the endless white as I walked along snowy fields toward the forest. Somewhere along my journey, I realized I'd been crying. Pausing to catch my breath, I felt a moment's14 I'd traveled off the recognizable path from my home. Tired and defeated, I fell and15 against a very strong trunk,16 my head on my drawn-up knees17 . A deer stood only a few inches away, locking her stare on mine. A few minutes passed, she stepped closer and lowered her head to18 my pocket as if to be in search of food. I felt my pocket and offered an apple to her gently. 

"Mistakes can bring positive outcomes, after all. " Excited by my new19 , I moved ahead, growing tired but pressing onward. It's the20 and willingness to learn from the past and then press onward that can lead to a joyful future. 

A little girl created the perfect Mother's Day gift.It was a drawing of a 1 on white paper with the words "For mom: love, love, love" decorated in hearts.She folded(折叠) her letter,2 then she lost it.

For most people, that would be the 3 of this story,but this story has a different result:James Carrell 4 the letter.He had just 5 his mother, wishing her a happy Mother's Day.After he got off the phone,Carrell saw the 6 on the ground outside of a hardware(五金器具) store in Manvel in Texas, United States."I 7 it was a note" said Carrell."I 8 it and saw the flower and hearts.It 9 .

moved me." Carrell thought the letter would 10 someone's day and maybe he could find the 11 , so he posted it in the Talk of Alvin Facebook group.The message 12 a lot of people, especially one man.

"I was sitting at my friend's house and saw a man 13 ,"said Carrell.

His Facebook comments(评论) included a message from Roberto Alvarado.He wrote, "I can't 14 you found my baby's letter."Carrell reached out to Alvarado to 15 the letter.It took a few days, but the men finally 16 on Thursday night, one day after Alvarado's daughter Natalie celebrated her seventh birthday." 

17 the letter made it home," said Alvarado." We are 18 for what James Carrell did." 

We often forget the power of 19 things,but for this family from Alvin, Carrell's small act left a(n)20 impression(影响).