Glacier Bay is one of the most famous parks in America, located in the state of Alaska. This park in the southeastern part of the state covers more than 1 million hectares of Alaskan wilderness. It includes mountains, glaciers (冰川), bays, and even rainforests. Glacier Bay supports hundreds of kinds of animals, including many species of birds, fish, bears, whales and sea lions.

    As its name suggests, much of Glacier Bay National Park is covered by glaciers. A glacier is a large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope (斜坡) or valley, or over a wide area of land. Glaciers cover more than 5,000 square kilometers of the park.

    Glacial ice has shaped the land over the last seven million years. The glaciers found in the park today are what remains from an ice advance known as the Little Ice Age. That period began about 4,000 years ago.

    During the Little Ice Age, the cold weather caused the ice to grow and advance. That situation continued until about 1,700s, when the climate began to warm. The higher temperatures caused the ice to start melting. That melting led the huge glacier to separate into more than 1,000 different glaciers.

    The extremely tall and jagged (参差不齐的) mountains seen in Glacier Bay National Park were formed by the ice advancing and then melting over time. The melting of the ice also created water that filled in and created the many fjords (峡湾) within the park. Fjords are narrow parts of the ocean that sit between cliffs or mountains.

    The huge amount of water from the melted ice killed off many kinds of plants. Vegetation returned to the area over the next 200 years. The regrowth in plants also brought back many animals to the land. This return of life to Glacier Bay is why it is sometimes called “a land reborn” by people.

    When asked to point out one or two things that are most important to themselves, many put friends ahead of homes, jobs, clothes and cars.

    A true friendship carries a long history of experience that determines who we are and keeps us connected. It is a treasure we should protect. Unfortunately, the better friends you are, the more probably you'll have disagreements. And the result can be what you don't want—an end to the relationship.

    The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended. First, don't let your pride get in your way. Most of us can forgive each other when differences are brought out in the open. Second, apologize when you're wrong — even if you've been wronged. Over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. Sometimes, it may be best if the wronged person takes the lead and apologizes. When you apologize, give your friend a chance to admit(承认) that he has been wrong. Third, see things from your friend's point of view. And finally, accept that friendships change as our needs and lifestyle change. Making friends can sometimes seem easy. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that have an effect on all relationships. My suggestion: consider friendship as an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture(培养).

    “Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a kid?!” My 7-year-old once asked me. My initial reaction to her complaint (抱怨) was eye-rolling, along with thinking, “Being a kid is hard? Are you kidding me?” as I mentally counted all the hard things that her grown-up mama did.

    However, as I thought about it a bit more, I realized how silly my reaction had been. Yes, as we adults look back on our childhood, being a kid seems carefree and easy and full of fun. Coloring at school! Playing games! Riding bikes! How could that be hard? So I asked my daughter why being a kid was so hard.

    “Well, because you don't have your own phone, and you can't eat in the living room,” she said.

     I asked if anything else was hard about being a kid. “Someone else is the boss of you,” she replied.

    I thought some more. What else is hard about being a kid? Well, sometimes, we don't really take kids seriously.

    There are times when I've responded to my children's tears with “It's not bad,” or “You don't need to be upset about that.” Because I believe that a cancelled playdate or a lost toy is no big deal. But for my little ones, it is.

    We don't intentionally ignore these opportunities for connection, but sometimes, in busy moments of parenting, we respond unskillfully. We don't put ourselves in our children's shoes, and we miss an opportunity to practice compassion.

    Compassion means “to feel with” or “to suffer with” another person. It means seeing something the way they do, and experiencing it with them.

    Here's what I've learned about being a more compassionate parent, and I hope other parents can do the same thing.

    Did you know that badminton is also a fast-paced competitive sport? Badminton has been a Summer Olympic sport since 1992. Para-badminton will be included in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Here's what you need to know if your child is interested in badminton.

    Badminton is played on a 44-foot-long rectangular (矩形的) court that is 17 feet wide for singles and 20 feet wide for doubles. It is divided in the middle by a net placed 5 feet off the ground, like volleyball, not at ground level like tennis.

In competition, each match is a set of three games played to 21 points. There is a one-minute break when a player or team reaches 11 points, and a two-minute break in between the first and second games and the second and third games.

Age kids can start: About 6 years old.

    Best for kids who: Have good skills, are patient and hardworking, and can handle the pressure of one-on-one or two-on-two competition.

Team or individual: Matches can be singles (one-on-one) or doubles (two-on-two).

    Fun fact: Badminton is the only sport that has mixed doubles event in the Olympic Games.

    Costs: Beginners are expected to pay $30 to $40 for an entry-level racquet (球拍). Badminton shoes are similar in price to other athletic shoes. Join a club or team for lessons. A one-hour group lesson for beginners should cost $20 to $25, with costs increasing as your child moves up the ranks. You will also pay entry fees for competitions.

    Time commitment required: Beginners will play for just an hour or two per week.

    Potential for injury: Players have a very low risk of injury. Players who wear glasses should use eye protection.

Confidence Comes From Treating Others As Equals

    There's been recent discussion over Chinese attitudes toward foreigners, caused by another quarrel between a foreigner and a taxi driver. According to the studies described in the Oxford Handbook of Chinese Psychology, Chinese have lower self﹣confidence compared to Westerners. Yet does the result still apply to the Chinese people today？

    Yes and no. For the moment, different attitudes toward foreigners can still be found in China's society, with some displaying low self﹣confidence like "Foreigners are awesome （令人敬畏的）, and Western countries are awesome. We should respect them and be as polite as possible, and shouldn't let them look down on us, " and a few unfriendly opinions such as "Some foreigners are rude and disrespectful, and their level of civility （礼貌） is far behind China."

    Chinese used to be lacking in self﹣confidence. It might start from the modern history, after the failure in the Opium wars, and the following humiliation （耻辱） of being bullied （被欺负） and brought to their knees by Western guns. And the dark history is still to some extent affecting our mentality （心态） today.

    For some time, the Western world represents the best of everything in some Chinese eyes. But our state of mind is gradually changing. When asked "What makes you feel proud of your country？" in school classes in China, answers vary from the World Expo to the Olympic Games, from athletes to astronauts, from the mushrooming skyscrapers to busy metropolises, which have all filled us with growing self﹣confidence.

    While answering the question "Since China is so good today and Chinese people are more confident, why are an increasing number of Chinese emigrating abroad？" Zhang Weiwei, a professor at Fudan University, replied that at least 70 percent of Chinese migrants （移民） become more patriotic （爱国的） after leaving their home country, no matter whether they have become a naturalized citizen of another nation or not. Such result and experiences are much more convincing and have better effect than dozens of "patriotic education" classes.

    There is no reason for us not to be self﹣confident. We live in the world's second﹣largest economy. Chinese net financial assets per capita （人均纯金融资产） and the purchasing power of people have seen a sharp rise, with more and more people starting to purchase works of art, instead of only necessities. These all indicate a rising standard of life and self﹣confidence.

    Nevertheless, the point of the changing attitudes toward ourselves or other countries is not realizing other nations are better or worse than China, but treating them like how we treat our fellow Chinese. That is what confidence means, not being condescending （屈尊）, not worshiping, but looking each other in the eye with trust and respect.

    Devon Gallagher, a college graduate from Philadelphia, wants the world to know exactly where she's been while she's on her worldwide vacation in a special way. The traveler, who was born with a bone disease, had her right leg amputated (截肢) at the age of four. Although the amputation caused inconvenience for Gallagher early on, she now sees it as nothing short of inspiration for living her best life.

    To spread that message. Gallagher has gone to social media, where she shares photos of her travels across the world, but instead of simply using a geo-tag (地理位置标签), she writes her location on her artificial leg before taking a picture.

    Now she has been taking pictures across the Continent, which show her cycling over the canal in Amsterdam relaxing on a wall overlooking the city of Barcelona, posing with a waffle in Brussels, taking in the beautiful Parthenon temple in Athens and enjoying a river ride in Budapest, all with the well-known locations written on her artificial leg.

    "I get a new leg every two years and I can choose the design on it. One day I had a sudden thought to get a chalk-board," Gallagher said. "My mum and grandmother didn't like the idea, but my friends thought it was great and told me to go for it, so I did."

    Gallagher said people often stare when she's writing on her leg, but once she shares the photos, she receives only positive feedback (反馈), "My leg hasn't stopped me from doing anything I've wanted to do," she said. "I don't know if it's my determination to prove to myself that I can do it, anyway, I've been able to keep up with people at my age and lead a pretty great life."

    Gallagher shows us that you should never let anything stand in the way of your dreams. And if life gives you an artificial leg, make art.