I volunteer with Meals on Wheels every Friday. A week ago, I had the pleasure of helping one of my customers (顾客). She is in her eighties and is very weak and I always bring her lunch on Fridays. She looked worried when she opened the door that day. She told me her phone was broken and that she couldn't receive the call from her doctor. She went to her neighbours, but they were not at home. She thought maybe the mailman could help her, but he didn't come. She was disappointed.

    Having heard her story, I decided to do something for her. I called the phone company immediately and made sure they knew that getting this phone fixed was urgent (紧急的). I took down her phone number and her name just to make sure I could call her later to make sure that the phone had been fixed.

    I called the phone company twice that day. They told me they had checked the phone line and got the phone connected. The old woman was so thankful that she was in tears (眼泪), hugging me for nay help. After that, I called her every day to make sure she was fine.

    My heart is filled with love and happiness. It does not take much time or effort to help someone like a neighbour. Sometimes, all that is needed is a smile, a hug or a phone call.

    Jack thought himself a basketball fan. He watched quite a lot of American NBA basketball games. Not only did he watch them, he spent much of his free time playing on the court too. Then came the final year of his middle school. All of his regular teammates stopped showing up on the court because they were simply too busy preparing for the high school entrance exam to play. He was, of course, under much stress himself, like everyone else. A good exam result meant a good high school; a mediocre(平庸的) score meant a mediocre school. Much was at stake.

    However, he loved basketball so much that he still found time to play, this time with a group of guys who were said to have skipped classes(逃课) before.

    Some of his teachers started worrying about him. They asked his mother to go to school to let her know that Jack was hanging out with problem kids. When his mother returned home that day, she wanted to talk to Jack. Knowing the purpose of her visit to the school, Jack though his mother would punish him for befriending those bad guys. To his surprise, his mother was not angry with him at all. She wanted to hear her son's side of story. So Jack told his mother about what he knew of Simon and Peter. Simon's parents were badly ill; Peter's father had lost his job. They both seemed to Jack to be normal kids. Jack's mother thought for a moment, and then went on to say that she was OK with her son playing with them and that she and her son should think of ways to help these kids. Soon Jack's mother introduced some part -time jobs to Simon and Peter, which they accepted. She believed in her son and cared about those who were less lucky.

    Jack's basketball friends and he have left for different places, but they still keep in touch. He knows Peter is now a manager of a local bank. Simon is currently a freshman at a university. Sadly, it is impossible to get together to play basketball again, but whenever they get on the phone, they talk about all the time.

    One evening last autumn, while Marcos Ugarte, 15, did his homework and his father, Eduardo, 47, prepared lesson plans, they heard screaming outside. It was from one of their neighbors, the Ma family. Then Marcos' eye was caught by a glow(火光) from there.

    "The house's on fire!" Marcos cried. Wearing only in shorts, the barefoot(光脚的) teen ran out with his dad. When they got there, Grandmother Yim Ma, mother Suzanne Ma, and son Nathan Ma were crying for help. Through the open front door, father Alex Ma was staggering(磕磕绊绊) down the stairs, coughing heavily.

    "Anyone else in it?" Eduardo asked.

    "My son!" Alex pointed to the second floor.

    Eduardo started up the stairs, but smoke and heat forced him to his knees. He crawled (爬) upstairs and down the hall where Alex said he would find Cody, 8, who had locked himself in a bedroom. Eduardo tried hard to open the door. But Cody made no reply, and Eduardo had to make his way back downstairs.  At the same time, Marcos saw Yim and Suzanne pulling a ladder, shouting: "Cody is at the window!"

    Marcos then placed the ladder near the window and climbed up. When Marcos reached the window, he pushed the screen into the room and managed to coax(哄) Cody out. Holding Cody with one arm, Marcos slowly climbed down the ladder. Cody was quickly sent to a nearby hospital, where he's treated for smoke inhalation(吸入).

    "You just don't see a teenager have that kind of braveness," said people around.

    I travel a lot in my work, and what I dislike about my job is eating alone. It always makes me feel lonely to see others laughing and talking. So, eating in the room is a better choice for me.

    After eating alone in my room for three nights in Houston, I needed to get out of my room. Although the restaurant opened at 6: 30, I arrived at 6: 25. The waiter at the front desk made a comment (评论) about my "being there really early" in surprise. I explained that I hated eating alone in restaurants. He then took me to a lovely table near the window and asked me whether I would mind if he sat down with me for a while.

    I was glad! He sat and talked with me about his career goals (职业目标) and the difficulty of being at work on nights, weekends and holidays. He said he hadn't enough time to be with his family. After 15 minutes, he saw some customers at the front desk and excused himself. I noticed that before he went to the front desk, he stopped in the kitchen for a moment.

    Then another waiter came out of the kitchen and had a wonderful chat with me. Before I left that night, some other waiters, even the cook, came out of the kitchen and sat with me!

    When I asked for my bill about one hour later, all the people who had sat down with me came over in a big group to my table, and gave me a red rose. And I cried! What a beautiful experience!

    One morning, I was driving my father-in-law to the airport when a plane flew silently over the road like a big bird, about to touch down at the airport.

    "It's magic," my father-in-law said. I looked at him, without knowing what was happening.

    He was a doctor who gave speeches at colleges and had visited more than 100 countries. He understood better than I why a plane can fly in the sky. It, really, wasn't magic. But now, I realize he was at least right in some way.

    Though flying might not be magic, it's certainly magical. What it brings to our real lives is something found in our dreams.

    But too often, we, especially I forget. I read a sentence a few months ago. It said, "You know you're growing-up when you no longer want a window seat."

    Too often in recent years, I've asked for a seat near the exit row, forgetting the wonders of traveling fast. But sometimes, when the Wi-Fi's not working or my computer has no power, I remember to look.

    I think of one time when I was leaving on a family vacation. Moments after take-off, I started working. But a passenger behind me wouldn't stop talking. "The clouds!" he kept saying, "Look at the clouds!"

I turned around, and saw two men, one who appeared to be in his seventies and the other much younger. The chat continued for 20 minutes until, not patiently, I raised my eyes from my computer screen and looked out of the window.

    The clouds!

    He was right. We were floating through big soft balls of cotton, each in different shapes. They seemed easy enough to touch. The afternoon sun provided all kinds of colors, all against a blue sky. I put away my computer and appreciated(欣赏)them for the rest of the flight.

    I don't remember the work I felt like I had to complete that afternoon. I've never forgotten those clouds.