What do butterflies have in common with the human spirit? Meet Maggie, a middle-aged wife and mother who was about to find out.

    Maggie wasn't rich like a millionaire or poor in a manner of being homeless. She was living an average comfortable life. It was made even better when a baby girl came her way. She and her husband made sure their daughter had her needs met and they were still able to take a yearly vacation by the beach.

    Maggie was a partner in her husband's business. They both had a different set of duties and everything was in balance. One day a severe blow came to her husband's business, and over a three-year period the business dropped out of sight. Her husband had to totally reinvent himself and was eager to start a new business. She was happy for him and supported him fully, but still the money was not coming in.

    Maggie began to feel guilty that she wasn't contributing with any kind of income. She began job-hunting and found filling out applications somewhat difficult, especially the part asking for job references. She was self-employed with her husband for almost 20 years, which seemed to mean nothing as she was never called for an interview.

    When she was job-hunting her mom became more ill than she had been and ended up in the hospital for a week. Once Maggie's mom returned home she became her mom's helper one day a week. She did everything that her mother was not able to do any more. Of course her mom would pay her for her lime and labor but she still felt she needed to find another source of income.

    One of the first applications she had filled out finally came through. She passed the interview and was told she was exactly what they were looking for. Although it was only part-time it was exactly what she wanted. It was important for her to be home when her daughter arrived home from school.

    Within a few weeks, though, she received an e-mail saying that the company had changed the job into a full-time position so that she was not qualified. Maggie felt betrayed and felt she had been lied to. That evening she was alone at home. She welcomed the aloneness and wanted to put herself in the bathtub to kill the lonely time.

    As she knew she would, Maggie began to cry, softly at first just from the sharp pain of being rejected. Three long years of struggle had finally overwhelmed her.

    When she was able to cry no more, she became worn out and gave up. It was at that moment that a silent idea came to her: why not offer elderly people home care assistance? Using another talent for computers she printed off some flyers and cards and distributed them to her church, grocery stores and even placed a small ad in the newspaper. Within a week she had procured two new customers. Now, even though she's not a CEO of a major company she feels happy and productive again.

    Before a butterfly can come out of its chrysalis (茧) it has to go through a lot of struggling. Each time it pushes out to escape, acids are being removed from its wings. If someone were to come along and break the chrysalis open for it then the butterfly would die from those acids. Actually the struggle is necessary for the butterfly to survive. Then in the stillness, when the struggle is over, the butterfly can come out and share its beauty with the world.

    We as humans are not any different.

    Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is the second largest city in Ontario and the fourth largest city in the country.

    The Centre Block is the main building on Parliament Hill (国会山). There also stand several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honor and the Memorial Chamber. The present Centre Block is the second copy of the building, after the first was undermined by a big fire in 1916, and it is one of the most recognizable buildings in Canada.

    Downtown Ottawa is the commercial and economic centre of the city. Most of the buildings are office towers. While most of Ottawa's high tech industry is based elsewhere, it has an important presence in the downtown center. The downtown also contains a number of apartments, hotels, and the older single family homes and townhouses along its edges (边缘).

    The National Gallery of Canada is one of Canada's earliest art galleries. The Gallery has a large and varied collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs. Although its focus is on Canadian art, it also holds works by some well-known American and European artists.

    The Rideau Canal is the oldest continuously operated canal (运河) system in North America. At the very beginning, it was used to provide a safe supply and communication route between Montreal and the British naval (海军的) base in Kingston. It remains in use today mainly for people to boat and enjoy themselves, with most of its original structures undamaged. The locks on the system open for navigation (航海) in mid-May and close in mid-October.

    Turning the lights out or wearing a blindfold while eating could be a quick way to lose weight, according to scientists. The simple trick works because it stops diners eating for pleasure rather than for calories. It also triggers (引发) a part of the brain that is worried that unseen food may go bad.

    An experiment by the University of Konstanz, in Germany, found that people who were blindfolded consumed nine percent fewer calories before they felt full, compared to those who could see. They also vastly overestimated how much they had eaten because they could not see how much was left on the plate. Blindfolded volunteers estimated(估计) they had eaten 88 percent more than they actually had.

    Scientists believe that not seeing food on the table also allows the body to know when it is full in real time rather than remembering past experiences where it might have taken a full plate to feel full.

    In the experiment, 50 people were blindfolded and 40 were allowed to see their food. All were told not to eat within two hours of the experiment. They were then given three 95g bowls of chocolate ice cream and invited to eat for 15 minutes. Their bowls were taken away and the remaining ice-cream weighed, while the participants were quizzed on how much they thought they had eaten.

    On average the group who could see ate 116g while the blindfolded groups ate 105g. However, the blindfolded group believed they had eaten 197g while compared with 159g for the non-blind volunteers. They were also asked how pleasant the ice-cream tasted and the blindfolded group rated lower than those who could see.

    “The experienced pleasure of eating was significantly lower in the blindfolded group. Not seeing the food might have decreased the appetite. Sight plays an important role in the eating experience and in the overall dining experience.”

    Previous studies have shown that the visual influence of food plays a large part in the taste. While restaurants that allow diners to eat in the dark state that it triggers other senses, in fact eating in darkness is likely to taste far milder than usual.

    When I was growing up, Mother's Day was as important as Christmas.

    The energy around the house was always positive（积极的）, mostly thanks to my father who made sure that his kids appreciated their mother, We would clean the house, and Mum got breakfast in bed in the morning and didn't have to lift a finger all day. And in the evening, we went to a restaurant for a traditional Mother's Day dinner.

    What I learned from my father over the years, was that no matter what, he always put my mother before himself. He absolutely loved her and never let her forget that. And from my parents, I learned a thing or two about how to love.

    I maintain（保持） my father's Mother's Day tradition with my wife. Growing up, I learned that showing affection to the woman you love or who gave birth to you is an important part of life. You see, it goes both ways, and the love you have for your mother comes back to you again and again.

    Believing that and feeling it when you can may keep you from being lonely, even if your mum isn't close by or has passed away. There are a number of us who no longer have a mother in our lives, and truth be told, there are often times when I wish my mum were still here to comfort me. So instead, I remember the times she did just that. It makes me smile, and somehow, those memories of a more simple and loving life give me the comfort I'm looking for.

    My wife's mother is still around, however, and it's great to have that "mother energy" in my life still. Having this relationship with my mother-in-law is nice because it gives me someone to be there for on Mother's Day, and any other day of the year.

    If you are mum-less, you too should find a deserving woman in your life and celebrate Mother's Day with her. If you don't know anyone, there are plenty of lonely mums in rest homes who would enjoy your company for a couple of hours. The visit will make both of your days, and perhaps your lives, a little bit better.

    BKLYN House Hotel

    This hotel features works by Brooklyn artists. The 116 rooms are of good value—Manhattan is only 20 minutes away by taxi or subway. The immediate surroundings feel urban—the hotel is by a high-rise public housing project while the nearest commercial street is under elevated subway tracks—but Bushwick's best bars and cafes/restaurants are nearby.

    Doubles from $99, room only. Tel：718 388 4433

    Archer Hotel

    Visitors eager to stay in the heart of Manhattan should try one of the bargain-priced rooms at this hotel. Rates vary from great value to expensive; some start from as low as $179 a night (if prepaying in full). Rooms are small but tasteful, with nice touches such as exposed brick. Some have close-up views of the Empire State Building.

    Doubles from $199, room only. Tel: 212 719 4100

    Pod 39 Hotel

    In an elegant brick building in Manhattan's Murray Hill, this excellent budget option opened following the success of its sister hotel, The Pod. The rooms are called pods given their small size and may not suit everyone. But with prices among the most competitive in Manhattan, budgeters will be happy.

    Doubles from $95, room only. Tel：212 865 5700

    CitizenM New York Times Square

    This is the first US location for a Netherlands-based concept hotel chain—CitizenM. The hotel features self check-in at its 230 little but comfortable rooms via touch screen “MoodPads”. There's a rooftop bar, a 24-hour grab-and-go cafeteria and an area with public iMac workspaces. Although New Yorkers avoid nearby Times Square, all the lights, cameras and action can make it a fun tourist experience.

    Doubles from $170, room only. Tel：212 319 7000

    Have you ever been to a music festival? Well if you live in the UK, the answer is probably yes. The number of festivals has grown greatly over the last few years and now there are around 200 every summer. So let's look at the history of four famous festivals.

    The Glastonbury Festival is a five-day festival of contemporary (当代的) performing arts held most years in Somerset, in the south-west of England. There are a rock and pop stage, a jazz stage, the Avalon stage, a theatre comedy stage, a cinema tent, a dance tent and a circus (马戏团). The festival started in1970and about 120, 000 people go to it every summer.

    The Reading Festival is truly world-class with rock and pop bands (乐队) appearing from all over the world, particularly (尤其) the USA. About 80, 000 music fans go to Reading every August Bank Holiday. The festival first came to its present site on the banks of the River Thames in Reading in 1971, when it moved from Plumpton in Sussex. It is still on the same site over 47 years later!

    WOMAD stands for World of Music, Arts and Dance and was the idea of rock musician Peter Gabriel to promote (宣传) world music. The WOMAD Festival started in 1982 and takes place in July at Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, and you can see different bands and musicians from all over the world. The festival welcomes over 26, 000 visitors each year.

    The one-day Monsters of Rock Festival at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes was first held in 1980 and gave visitors the chance to hear the very best of hard rock and heavy metal. There were no festivals between 1996 and 2003 as a result of changing musical fashions, but now it has returned and grown into a two-day festival with a campsite for the 30, 000 people who go there in summer days.