“How did you do it, Dad? How have you 1 not to take a drink for almost 20 years？” It took me almost 20 years to have the2to even ask my father this very 3question. When Dad first4drinking, the whole family was on pins and needles5 he got into a situation that, in the past, would have started him drinking again. For a few years we were6to bring it up for fear that the drinking would begin again.

    “I had this little7 that I would recite to myself8four to five times a day.” was Dad's9to my 18 year old unasked question. “The10 were an instant relief and constant reminder to me that things were never so 11that I could not handle them，” Dad said. And then he 12the poem with me. The poem's simple, yet profound (深奥的) words13became part of my daily routine as well.

    About a month after this talk with my father, I14a gift in the mail from a friend of mine. It was a book of affirmations (断言)with one affirmation listed for each15of the year.

    I16opened the book to the page of my birthday to see what words of wisdom this book had in store for me.17of disbelief and appreciation rolled down my face. There, on my birthday, was the18poem that had helped my19for all these years! It is called The Serenity Prayer.

    God, give me the serenity (平静) to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to20the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

    It is not often that a person has sympathy for someone who stole from him / her. But when Chrissy Marie read the note written by the brother of the “1” who took her butterfly wind chime(风铃), her heart 2.

    The young boy 3 the note and left it on her doorstep. Chrissy 4 a photo on Facebook of the note and the US＄5 the little boy 5 .

    The note read: “I am6that we stole your wind chime. Our mum died and she liked butterflies. My sister7 it to put by our window. I am sorry this is the only8 I have. Please do not be mad at us. Jake .”

    Chrissy Marie wants Jake and his sister to know she is not9 Now Chrissy wants to find Jake and his sister and 10 their money.

    Chrissy11to Jake via her Facebook message: “Well Jake, I hope you can come to get your money12 . I had three of those wind chimes. And I am not mad at all.”

    Chrissy is13 to the area, so she doesn't know many people. She tried to14who Jake is or where he lives, but 15 .

     “I have knocked on a few doors nearby. But I can't16 far because of my injured leg.” she wrote. “I asked my neighbour,17 she didn't know anyone named Jake.”

    Chrissy understands how 18 it can be to lose a mother. She said, “Obviously, the boy felt 19 for what his sister did.”

    Chrissy has been surprised by all the 20 her post got, and she hopes it won't scare Jake off.

    When I came to my new school three years ago, I was surprised at how lonely I felt. Then one of my classmates invited me to her house for a dinner 1. I was a little anxious, but finally I gladly 2.

    Not really knowing how 3 the bus ride should be, I 4when I saw the landmarks5 on my friend's hand-drawn map. But when I got close enough to the 6, I found none of the streets were shown on the map. I was 7 on a busy road with cars driving past without a person in sight. I had no 8 when the next bus would come, 9 when a bus did come by, I 10 got on. I told the bus driver where I wanted to go and he said that I had caught the 11 bus, but he let me stay on. After he had finished his scheduled bus route, he 12 to help me out. I gratefully showed him my little hand-drawn map but 13 did not help much.

    He finally 14 me off at a main road to catch a different bus and was 15 that he could not help me more. After a few minutes of walking, I noticed a bus pull up beside me. It was the 16 bus driver. He explained that he didn't want to leave me there 17. He sent out a call and someone radioed back, saying that the bus I needed to catch was about ten minutes away. At last I made it to the dinner party 18 I was over an hour late.

    I am forever thankful for the 19 that this bus driver had for me. His act of kindness left a 20 on my heart.

    I became a gardener when I was twelve. My early 1 of gardening may not have come from my love for nature. It was to 2 my parents.

    At that time we had a big yard in which a beautiful maple tree stood. But my mother often looked with 3 at this work of natural art. Those golden leaves seemed like tons of rubbish to her, something else to 4. Seeing the neighbors busy with gardening, my father even thought it a waste of time.

    At that age, I always did something 5 to whatever my parents did! If gardening were something they found 6, I would plant a garden!

    I planted some lily seeds in the yard. But they failed to 7, I continued to plant sunflower seeds and roses. Wild 8 joy, I found the first rose bloom (开花). One by one, the flowers bloomed their heads off. 9, I was touched by this land of wonder.

    10, my parents showed no interest in my garden. My father even 11at me because he found it was 12 to move around my garden to the driveway. To my mother's 13, I put in her vase my real roses which in her eyes were simply weeds 14 flowers.

    Regardless of their 15, I kept on planting my garden and 16 to enjoy the pleasure of gardening. Plants make such good companions: they breathe, they bloom, they 17 to care and love.

    It has been many years since I made my first garden out of my desire to 18 my parents. Today I become known as Mrs. Green thumbs (手指), teaching gardening and hosting a gardening show, which makes my parents feel very 19. And now I could say it my affection for 20 that makes me a real gardener.

    My father was a highly educated, intelligent gentleman. He could debate or discuss for 1on almost any topic and hold your attention in the process. I thought there was 2 he wasn't able to do.

    A few days 3 my younger brother's 7th birthday, Dad planned to put together a shiny new 4 as a special birthday surprise. After nearly an hour of 5 the instructions, Dad was still unable to put the new bike together. Later he folded up the paper of instructions, 6 his tool box, and decided to take the bike back to the local toy store and pay extra money to have it 7 assembled(组装) there. Then, a(n) 8 came to him, as he called out to Lovett, the quiet little man who mowed our grassland.

    "Lovett, have you ever assembled a boy's bicycle?" As Lovett walked towards the bike, Dad handed him the paper of instructions. Lovett handed it 9 to him, saying," No, thanks. I can't read. When you can't read, you have to 10." Less than 15 minutes later, the new bicycle was fully assembled, with no spare parts 11. Dad shook Lovett's hand, patted him on the back, thanked him and hid the bike.

On the night after my brother 12 his simply new gift. Dad announced at the family dinner table 13 had happened several days earlier. He took great delight in telling it 14 —he used it as an example of thinking.

    He did not 15 illiteracy (文盲) , but strongly taught us to use our 16. The joke was on my father, 17 he was able to turn it into a learning tool, and I liked him even 18  after the incident. I also gained a respect for Lovett. To me he had always been the old yard man who didn't say much, but after that day, he seemed to smile 19 , even walk taller. It's amazing what a real nod of  20 can do to lift people up.

In 2011, Nancy Ballard went for a routine check-up that turned into something extraordinary. In fact, she was carrying a painting of a plant she'd done when she arrived at her doctor's San Francisco office. "It would be great if we had artwork like that for our chemotherapy(化疗) rooms," the nurse said. Ballard asked to see one. 

She was shocked by what she found. The walls were dull and bare, and the paint was falling. It was a depressing room for a depressing routine—patients were restricted to chemo drips for perhaps several hours, often with nothing to look at other than those sad walls. Ballard didn't have cancer herself, but she could sympathize with the patients. "I couldn't imagine how anyone could even think about getting healthy in a room like that," she says. As it happened, Ballard's physician, Stephen Hufford, was ill with cancer himself, so finding time to decorate the rooms was low on his to-do list. So Ballard made it her task to brighten up the place. 

She started by emailing 20 local designers. "I wrote, ‘You don't know me. But my heart hurts after seeing these rooms,'" she remembers. She then asked whether they would donate their time and money to transform just one of Dr Hufford's rooms each. 

As it happened, six of them wrote back almost immediately. Six rooms got new paint, light fixtures, artwork and furniture. Dr Hufford was delighted. "All the patients feel relieved of the pain because of it," he said. He even noted that his own tone of voice was different in the rooms and that he was better able to connect with his patients. 

Ballard was so encouraged by the patients' reactions that she created a non-profit organization to raise money and decorate more spaces. Since then, she has worked on 20 projects, including one in Pennsylvania. "We were in Philadelphia for a ribbon-cutting(剪彩), and a woman was there on her third battle with cancer," says Ballard. "When she saw what we'd done, she said, ‘I'm gonna beat it this time. I thought I wasn't going to, but now I know I'm gonna beat it.'"