Joy in the Journey If you have ever been discouraged because of failure, please read on. For often, achieving what you set out to do is not the important thing. Let me explain.

      Two brothers decided to dig a deep hole behind their house. As they were working, a couple of older boys stopped by to 1. “What are you doing?” asked one of the visitors.“We plan to dig a hole all the way through the   2!” One of the brothers volunteered 3.

     The older boys began to 4, telling the younger ones that digging a hole all the way through the earth was 5. After a long silence, one of the 6 picked up a jar full of spiders, worms and many other kinds of insects. He   7 the lid and showed the wonderful 8 to the scoffing（嘲笑的）visitors. Then he said quietly and 9, “Even if we don't dig all the way through the earth, look at what we have found  10  the way!”

      Their goal was far too ambitious, but it did cause them to dig. And that is   11    a goal is for — to cause us to move in the  12  we have chosen, in other words, to keep us 13! But not every goal will be fully  14. Not every job will end 15. Not every hope will come to pass. Not every love will last. Not every dream will be 16. But when you fall  17 of your aim, perhaps you can say, “Yes, but look at what I found along the way! Look at the wonderful things  18 my life because I tried to do something!” It is in the digging 19 life is lived. And I believe it is the joy in the journey, in the end, that truly  20.

A Deed a Day

    It was a busy day as usual. I was making sandwiches and balancing the phone between my shoulder and chin. The washing machine sounded as my husband walked in with our daughters. We had only about twenty minutes to eat 1 we had to take the girls to their next activity. My husband seemed a bit 2 that dinner was not on the table.

    That night, I had a heavy 3, thinking we were becoming taskmasters on an assembly line（流水线）. We had become too 4 in our own tasks and not very considerate towards those around us. We needed to do something to bring back some meaning into our lives. It needed to be something that would 5 our own matters and energize us toward the common good.

    I bought a notebook, named it “Our Deed Diary” and held a family meeting. I told my family I wanted us all to think about doing a 6 for others every day. It could be for each other or for people outside our 7. And we all needed to write it down in the notebook.

    I thought one deed a day was too easy. However, it was actually 8 than it seemed because it had to be something 9 what we had already done. Sending birthday cards to people we already sent cards to every year would not 10.

    We had a rough 11. On some days, someone would forget to 12 a good deed, while on other days, we would forget to write our good deeds in the diary. After a few weeks though, I found myself waking up in the morning trying to 13 what good deed I could do for someone that day. My daughters began to rush to me after school to 14me the good deed they had done.

    Now, after a year, I am happy to say that it is making a(n) 15 in our lives. Instead of always 16 what the day will bring for us, we think about what we can do for someone else.

    Who would have thought that trying to do a simple kindness a day would be so 17? I feel my daughters have felt inner joy that you can only 18 by giving to someone else from your heart. The best thing is that you feel so great about doing something for someone else; you don't even look for a expect anything in 19. So, when someone does return the favor, it is an enormous and 20 bonus.

    Draper, the owner of a secondhand bookstore, was sorting through a pile of old books when an envelope fell from one. Inside was an undated 1 and a faded photo of a woman holding a little girl on her lap. The letter said if Bethany was 2 it, it meant the author had died.

    Tears were welling up in Draper's eyes. These were a 3 woman's last words to her child. He had to 4 Bethany. “Whoever it is will 5 this,” he thought. “You wouldn't 6 a letter like that.”

    He supposed if the 7 ended up in his shop then Bethany was likely from around Bishop Auckland. And he thought he 8 recognized the little girl's face. Even if she'd since left the area, there might be someone in town who would recognize the 9.

    He started with the local newspaper. The Northern Echo ran the story of the 10 letter.

    11, Bethany Gash, now 21 and a(n) 12 herself, was on Facebook about 10 miles away when a close friend messaged her to check out the 13. As she read her mother's 14, words she thought had been lost forever, she said she thought she must be 15.

    Gash was only 4 when her mother 16. Five years later, her family moved to a new home and the letter, put away in the pages of a book for safe keeping, was unintentionally 17.

    She remembers unpacking and looking for the letter, and then 18 searching through everything in hopes that it was there. “That's when I realized it was 19 gone by now and I'd never see it again,” she said.

    Draper 20 the letter in person. He also brought her a children's book for her son. Gash was greatly moved to have the letter back, and also touched by the stranger's kindness.

    On Dyec. 13, 2014, Nubia Wilson turned 16. But instead of 1with an exciting Sweet 16 birthday party, the California teen devoted this milestone to 2the lives of orphans in Ethiopia.

    Through several summers of volunteer work at an Ethiopia orphanage, Nubia learned firsthand the severe poverty so many children3. In an email to The Huffington Post, Nubia said that she was 4struck by the children's lack of access to 5— their school only went through the fourth grade.

    Over the course of her volunteer work, Nubia became interested in one 6, Hermela. She writes:

    Out of the many students in the kindergarten class, Hermela became 7and attached to me to a point where it was becoming 8for both of us to leave each other. She is now in the second grade. The thought of Hermela not being able to have her meal and 9education after the fourth grade became 10and I knew I had to do something.

    That's when Nubia decided that she didn't want a traditional Sweet 16.11, she wanted to use the money her parents would have spent on a party to establish 12grade class for Hermela and other kids.

    "The money could provide a(n) 13solution that will serve for many years compared to the one-day 14of my party," Nubia wrote to Huffpost Live. In short, I want Hermela to continue 15. "

    After telling friends and family her 16, Nubia set up a(n) 17page "Keep Hermela Smiling" on CrowdRise. Her 18will raise funds for the Fregenet Foundation, which funds education and community services in Ethiopia.

    So far, Nubia has 19＄2,781 of her ＄10,000 goal.  Nubia says that her parents have been extremely 20; they're selling most of their Ethiopian artifacts to help raise funds.

    Nubia's birthday may not have been a party, but it's truly a celebration.

    Tim Becker and his neighbors are doing something to make their neighborhood a trouble-free area.

    When Tim Becker gets in his car to go shopping, he doesn't 1 drive to a store and back home. He always looks 2 up and down the streets of his neighborhood. He looks for anything 3 such as strange cars, loud noises, 4 windows, or people gathering on street corners.

    Tim 5 to a neighborhood watch group in Stoneville, Indiana. USA. The neighborhood watch group 6 on the third Wednesday of every month. That's 7 Tim gets together with about ten of his neighbors to discuss community 8. Members of the neighborhood watch group want to help the police 9 their homes, streets, and families safe.

    Tina Stedman, president of 10 neighborhood watch group, agrees with Tim.

    "People seem to think that crime (犯罪) happens to other people but not 11 them. Well, it's never happened to me," she said, "but I don't think anyone has the 12 to steal from other people or to make them feel 13 sitting in their own homes."

    Alex, a member of the group, said that all the neighbors 14 out for one another. "We 15 each other's homes. We keep watch on the neighborhood at night and on weekends. Usually a 16 of four or five of us goes out together. If something doesn't look right, then we call the 17. For example, if we notice a group of teenagers who seem to be looking for 18, or someone destroying property (财产), we report to the police."

    Alex feels the neighborhood watch groups 19 a lot in keeping crime down. Her husband Jim agrees, "Police are good people, but they can't do 20."

    We have five fantastic children. As they've grown older, from high school to college and so on, we found ourselves cleaning out our home of furniture only to replace it with something new. We had this living room set (一组) 1 a sofa, love seat and chair go 2 a couple of the kids, dragging it up the stairs to their third floor apartments and back down again to the next apartment. Our son was the last to have the set when 3 he asked for a place to 4 it because he was going out of town for a semester. We told him we would 5 it for him in our garage. So we picked the furniture up and 6 it back to the house.

    One day, while at 7, I heard a couple of people talking in the hallway. A mother and her two children were 8 out of their own house by her husband, with 9 but the clothes on their backs. Some warmhearted people found them a place to stay, but no belongings, clothes, food, or furniture.

    Our colleagues and I 10 all we could to help her. I went to the store and bought some clothes for the children and some 11 essentials. I came home that day after work and looked at the furniture in the garage sitting there, 12. I called my son and told him what I wanted to do. He agreed.

    The next 13 was to the mother of two. She came to my house within an hour to pick up the furniture and the bag of clothes. She said she would 14 the furniture as soon as she would be able to.

    I looked at her and said, "15 you are done with the furniture, give it to someone else in16."

    She cried, 17 by the generosity and thanked everyone greatly for all that 18 did to help. It makes me so happy to know that the 19 that grew with our family was being 20 to good use.