What a lesson for me! It was August and it was hot. I had to wear a tie to do a survey door by door in this neighbourhood, but I was always refused. I finally caught on and began with “Before you close the door, I am not selling anything and I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and the community”.

    The young woman inside the doorway stopped for a moment, confused by my rude introduction and finally said, “Sure. Come on in. Don't mind the mess. It's hard to keep up with my kids.”

    “I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and your family. Although this may sound personal, I won't need to use your names. This information will be used.” She interrupted me. “Would you like a glass of cold water? You look like you've had a rough day.” “Why yes!” I said gratefully. Just as she returned with the water, a man came walking in the front door. It was her husband. “Joe, this man is here to do a survey.” I stood and politely introduced myself.

    “Joe works for the town,” she said. “What do you do?” I asked. She jumped right in not letting him answer. “Joe collects garbage. You know I'm so proud of him.”

    There was a silence. I didn't know what to say. I shook my head searching for the right words. “That's unbelievable! Most people would not be satisfied with a job like that. It certainly is a difficult one. But your attitude about it is amazing.” I said.

    She walked over to the shelf. As she returned she held a small framed（装裱）paper, walking toward Joe. “I have always been proud of him and always will be. You see I don't think the job makes the man, but the man makes the job!” she said as she handed me the paper.

    It said: If a man is called to be a cleaner, he should clean streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great cleaner who did his job well.”

    Legal information on call

    On a recent spring morning. Susan Alexander, a retired government intelligence analyst, left her Maryland home, climbed into her Volkswagen Passat and drove about three miles to pick up two strangers. She battled rush-hour traffic on the Capital Beltway and George Washington Memorial Parkway before dropping them off at Reagan National Airport. She didn't earn a cent for her trouble, and that was the point.

    Alexander is a member of the Silver Spring Time Bank-one of more than 100 such exchanges around the world trying to build community by exchanging time credits for services instead of dollars and cents. "I have time," she said. "I like giving the gift of time to other people."

    In Alexander's case, passengers Mary and Al Liepold were grateful for the ride, but it wasn't charity. Mary, a retired writer and editor for nonprofit organizations, used time credits she banked for editing work and baking. Senior citizens who don't drive, the Liepolds cashed in their credits to catch a flight to Montreal for a five-day vacation.

    Without money changing hands or shifting between virtual accounts, the airport drop-off was more like a coffee party than a taxi ride. Driver and passengers chatted about projects they've completed for the time bank, and no one raised an eyebrow when Mary said she likes "to avoid the conventional economy."

    "The beauty of this is that you make friends," Mary Liepold said. "You don't just get services."

    The Silver Spring Time Bank formed in 2015 and has about 300 members, said co-founder Mary Murphy. Last year, she said, l,000 hours were exchanged for basic home repairs, dog walking, cooking and tailoring, among other services, without the exchange of money." You get to save that money that you would have spent," she said. "You get to meet somebody else in your community and get to know that person. That's a bonus that's part of an exchange. "

    A deal performed partly to make friends would seem to go against classical economics and one of Benjamin Franklin's most memorable sayings: "Time is money." To those at the forefront of modem time-banking, that is the appeal.

    Sandi Patty has been a name synonymous (同义的) with Gospel music because of her singing ability since she released her first album in 1979.

    Patty's newest book. The Voice, takes a deep dive into parts of her life she's kept private for years. Surprisingly, The Voice is not primarily concerned with Patty's singing voice. Patty was always a talented singer. However, she struggled to find her inner voice and speak up for herself. "I was a shy kid. Words were hard for me," Patty said.

    One of the reasons why Patty found it so difficult to use her voice was a traumatic childhood experience. At age six, she was abused by a friend, an experience she opened up for the first time in the book.

    She is sharing the story of her experience now, hoping it will help other people feel less alone. "Feeling alone keeps everybody silent about the tough times in our lives, so we think we're the only ones," Patty said. She wrote in The Voice that she felt like it was her job to make everyone feel better.

    Friendships were essential for helping Patty find the courage to speak up. They reminded her that she didn't need to make others feel better because the people she loved didn't doubt she cared for them.

    Friends and family were crucial for helping Patty confront another struggle she faced—shame. She felt unpleasant for insecurities about her weight and her divorce. "I've heard it explain that guilt tells us we have done something wrong and shame says we are wrong," Patty said.

    "I want people to know that their stories and their voices matter," Patty said. "We have to figure out a way to take our pain away and put it where it needs to be, without letting it guide our lives. Pain is a part of our story. It describes us, but it doesn't need to define us."

When it comes to recycling the household waste, people have done it for about two decades. However, there's still some confusion about what can and what can't be recycled. With advances in technology, there are more things that can be recycled.

COFFEE PODS (咖啡荚)

On average, Australians are using more than three million coffee pods per day, and about 1.5 million households have coffee machines. While the pods are disastrous for the environment, they can still be recycled. Nespresso has a free post-back programme and drop-off points run by TerraCycle, so you can take the pods and directly drop off at Nespresso stores.

LIGHT BULBS

Rather than throwing light bulbs into the bin, some councils run specific recycling stations, which allow you to drop off these kinds of items. If you do regularly recycle household glass, remember all glass should be washed and have lids removed.

PIZZA BOXES

Normally pizza boxes don't make it into recycling because they're covered in grease (油脂) and leftover bits of cheese. When a pizza box is too greasy, it won't be taken to a recycling processing plant. If possible, remove as much of the leftovers as you can before recycling. If the pizza box can't be recycled, tear off the lid which can still be recycled.

HOUSEHOLD BATTERIES

Household batteries can also be recycled. Batteries that do end up in landfills can cause a serious problem to the environment as they can release poisonous chemicals into the soil which are harmful to both humans and animals. Button-cell batteries, which are used in hearing aids and watches, can also be recycled.