I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

    So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.

    Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲); it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

    It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It_is_so_easy_to_exist_instead_of_to_live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

    By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.

    It seems that the great desire among the young is to be popular. The desire to be popular can force you into looking and acting like everyone else. You can lose yourself in a sea of identical hairstyles and thinking styles.

    I was forced to think about popularity not too long ago in a talk I had with my daughter. Margy had to change schools when my busy work schedule made it necessary for me to move houses. I suppose that，for a girl in her teens，entering a new school is like spending a season alone in the tropical jungles. At least that's how Margy found it at first. However，as the school year drew to a close，one student after another came to her.I told Margy that I would have been more concerned if she had been an instant social success in her new school. Nobody can please everyone. If you try to do so，you will find values as lasting as soap bubbles blown into the air.

    Some teenagers claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in a certain way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon into a larger cocoon.

    I know that it has become harder for a young person to stand up against the popularity wave. Our way of life makes a young nonconformist stand out like a Martian. These days there's a great barrier for the young person who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. Well，go to it. Be yourself .Popularity will come with the people who respect you for who you are. That's the only kind of popularity that really counts.

    In China, there are more and more people leaving the countryside to hunt for jobs in the cities, because the countryside is much poorer than the city, and often there isn't much work there. Services such as hospital and transport are usually much better in the city than in the countryside. They hope that their lives will improve when they move to the city.

    But in the big cities of Europe like London or Paris, people are moving out of the city. These rich families want to live a quieter life. They are tired of the noise and the dirt of the city, and they are tired of the crowded streets, crowded trains and buses. They don't want to live in the cities any more. They want a house with a garden in the countryside, and breathe the fresh air there. So they move out of the cities. Some don't go very far, just a little way out of the city, to the towns near the cities. Other people move to the real countryside with sheep, cows and green fields. There they start new lives and try to make new friends.

    Not all those who move from the city to the countryside are happy. After two or three years, many people who have done this feel that it is a big mistake. They don't make so much money and there isn't much work to do. People in the countryside are different and aren't always very friendly. As a result, quite a lot of people who have moved to the countryside move back to the city. “It's wonderful to see crowds in the streets and cinema lights.” they say.

    Today show's Kathie Lee Gifford is hoping to bring the story of David to a new generation with her latest musical project, The Little Giant.

    The 13-song album tells the story of the shepherd (牧羊人) boy who defeated a giant with five stones and a slingshot and became a king. The idea of the record came after Gifford and her husband Frank went on a life-changing trip to the Holy Land in 2012.

    Gifford hoped to shine light on David's story to help a new generation find their own purpose; it's why she decided to compose this album that invites kids to hear the tale of the shepherd in a fun and educational way. Gifford based the record's opening track "What is Your Stone" on bravery and faith. She hopes the songs can help children find confidence in themselves.

    Though the album is aimed towards families and children, Gifford found recording the story of David to be an exercise in healing after the death of her beloved husband Frank who passed away two years ago.

    "I catch myself saying that I lost him sometimes," Gifford says, "No, he hasn't been gone. The trip took root in my husband's life, because he truly came to understand exactly what David did. "

    Gifford says the trip and the teachings stayed with her husband until his death. 66For the next three years, when people came to visit us, they'd always see Frank's trophy (奖杯) room because it's like a museum," Gifford explained. "He would take them over. Instead of all of his trophies, he would point to the stones we brought back from the travelling destination and talk a out them. "

    Gifford expects her own journey, her new album and her commitment to bringing a bit of joy to people through her show can help inspire children to discover their own faith and purpose.

    Upcoming Events of New York Chinese Cultural Center

    Fan Dance

    Sunday, September8, 2:00pm-3:00 pm, $15 per child

    New-York Historical Society Museum & Library

    Learn Chinese fan dancing with an instructor from NYCCC! This program is a part of an exhibition which examines the history of trade and immigration between China and the United States.

    Dragon Boat Festival

    Friday, September13,2:00pm -2:30pm

    Fresh Meadows Park

    Come and celebrate with us in the thousand-year-old tradition of Dragon Boat racing! Be part of the audience and enjoy the excitement of this celebration. FREE ADMISSION! Click here for more information. Dragon Boat Festival will be held in Fresh Meadows Park.

    Dance to China

    Sunday, September15, 2 pm

Spruce Street School Auditorium, 12 Spruce St, New York, NY 10038

Join us in celebrating 43 years of preserving and continuing Chinese traditional dance. Students from NYCCC School of the Arts will be performing traditional Chinese dance, martial arts, and Beijing opera. Cost is $15 for adults, $12 for teenagers and senior citizens, $10 for children under 12.

    NYCCC School of the Arts Open House

    Saturday, September21, from 1:00pm -3:00 pm, $12 per child

    PS 124, Yung Wing School, 40 Division Street, New York, NY 10002

    Join us and see Chinese dance, kung fu, and acrobatic (杂技的)performances performed by our current students. Come and see our students' beautiful artwork on display and make some artwork yourselves during our hour of arts and crafts and face painting from 1-2 pm. The show will be from 2-3pm.

    The popular image of the mountain climber is of a person carefully climbing a steep cliff with a network of safety ropes, but it is not the only kind. Many climbers now enjoy bouldering. It's more accessible and better for the environment.

    Here is an example of a climber addressing a bouldering problem.

    Figure 1: The climber has two routes she could take, one to the left and one to the right. The left one appears easier because it has a jug within easy reach, but look what happens if she chooses that direction. She gets stuck on the rock and has to go back down. Sometimes that is even more difficult than going up.

    Figure 2: The climber takes the one to the right this time. Using a foothold and placing her right hand in a crimp, she is able to lift herself up and locate other handholds. After only a few moves, she is able to throw her leg over the top of the boulder and pull herself up.