One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his schooling by selling goods from door to door found that he only had one dime left. He was hungry so he decided to 1 for a meal at the next house.

    However, he lost his nerve 2 a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked 3so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it 4, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”

    “You don't owe me anything,” she 5. “Mother has taught me never to accept pay for a 6” He said, “Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger 7, but it also increased his faith in God and human race. He was about to give up and quit before this point.

    Years later the young woman became seriously ill. The local doctors were confused. They finally sent her to the big city, where specialists can be called in to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly，now 8, was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light 9 his eyes. Immediately, he 10 and went down through the hospital hall into her room. 11 in his doctor s gown he went in to see her. He 12 her at once. He went back to the consultation room and 13 to do his best to save her life. From that day on, he gave 14 attention to her case.

    After a long 15 the battle was won. Dr. Kelly 16 the business office to pass the final bill to him for 17.

    He looked at it and then wrote something on the side. The bill was sent to her room. She was afraid to open it because she was negative that it would take the rest of her life to pay it off. Finally she looked, and the note on the side of the bill caught her 18. She read these words...

“Paid in full with a glass of 19.” (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

    Tears of joy flooded her eyes as she 20 silently. “Thank you, God. Your love has spread through human hearts and hands.”

Running for a Dream

    I will never forget that November day. It was hotter than normal. This was the 1my father and I had waited so long for, because we had been working towards this race for three years. Dozens of familiar faces from church and school flashed across my view. They had come2me. I saw worry and3on my father's face. Then the race began!

    For the first two and a half miles. I felt4.I had never before been so ready for something. The weeks leading up to the race were filled with controlled5and a strict diet. My friends hadn't seen me in weeks, but they understood the6required to make my dream a reality. As in all of my races, I didn't7out in the front, I loved the pleasure of passing people as my strength overtook their premature speed.

    Then without warning, my strength began to decrease. Neck and neck with one of my greatest competitors, I8see the finish line. I had begun the final dash into9when my knees became weak and my legs gave way. Nothing I could do would make them10weight.

    I watched as runners rushed by me.11I knew my dreams of victory were destroyed. I had to finish the race. However, my legs hurt badly. With all of the 12left in me, I got on my hands and knees and crawled （爬）,inch by inch, across the finish line. Voices, both13and familiar, cheered me on. They gave me the courage to keep14until the very end.

    The doctors were there in seconds, but my eyes searched the crowd for him. There was only one person I wanted to15to. I whispered, "I'm so sorry, Dad, I'm so sorry I 16you." He looked at me, saying," You could never disappoint me. Sometimes these things just17.All that matters is that you did your best."

    "But we worked so18.What about our dream？"He reached over for my hand and said, "Don't you know that you are my dream and it has come true？"

It wasn't long before my running shoes were back on, marking a19path for my journey, I learned that all of the miles, the tears, the sweat, and the pain my dad and I experienced together were not for a20.What I realized, though, was that to him ,I was the greatest prize he had ever won.

    A little boy was spending his Saturday morning playing in his sandbox (儿童玩耍的沙场).  In the process of creating roads in the soft sand, he 1 a large rock in the middle of the sandbox.

    The boy 2 around the rock, managing to move it from the sand. With a little bit of 3, he pushed the rock out of the sandbox by using his feet. When the boy got the rock to the edge of the sandbox, 4, he found that he couldn't 5 it up and over the little wall. The rock was too 6 for his small body.

    As he 7 to accept his failure, the little boy dug, pushed and dragged, but every time he thought he had made some 8, the rock rolled and then fell back into the sandbox. The little boy 9 again and again, but his only 10 was to have the rock roll back.

    11 he burst into tears. All the time the boy's father 12 from his living room window as the story continued. At the moment the tears fell, a 13 voice rose above the boy's head. It was the boy's father. 14 but firmly he said, "Son, why didn't you use all the 15 that you had?" Defeated, the boy replied with tears, "But I did, Daddy, I did! I 16 all the strength that I had!" "No, son." 17 the father kindly. "You didn't use all the strength you had. You didn't  18 me to help you." With that the father picked up the rock and 19 it from the sandbox.

    Do you have "rocks" in your life that need to be removed? Are you discovering that you don't have the strength it takes to lift them? There is one who is always available to us and willing to 20 you with the strength you need.

As an only child, Nicole Renae often felt lonely in her youth. But that all changed when she turned ten. For her birthday, Renae's grandmother 1 her with an adorable gray 2 named Chloe.

From the very start, the two were 3 . "She was my best friend," Renae said. Every ounce of love Renae gave, the little dog returned tenfold.

But when Renae was 14, her father 4 a new job that came with a shocking warning: He'd be working at home, and the house needed to 5 noise disturbance.

"Chloe was very noisy," Renae said. "I was just a kid, so I didn't have any 6 in the matter. I didn't want to 7 my dog. I just felt so sick and 8 about it. With no easier option, the family sent Chloe to a humane society.

9 , Renae grew up, got married, and had a child of her own. But her family didn't feel quite complete. Remembering the 10 that having a dog had brought her as a kid, Renae wanted her daughter to 11 the same. She had it in her mind that she would 12 a puppy, but then one day she saw a post on a social media platform about a 13 dog that needed a new home. The dog in the photograph looked a lot like Chloe —she was even named Chloe. In an instant it was 14 : She would adopt this older dog.

When she met Chloe, the dog seemed so familiar. And Chloe appeared to feel the same 15 about Renae. Soon Renae cried with excitement because she felt so lucky to have Chloe again.

All I needed to do to earn the two dollars was to clean her house for a few hours after school. It was a beautiful house with things that were common in her neighborhood, absent in mine.

Working for her brought me a sense of pride, not only because I could immerse myself in little luxuries like movies and candy, but also because I contributed half of my earnings to my mother, ensuring they were used for necessities. I was not like the children in folktales: burdensome mouths to feed, problems so severe that they were abandoned to the forest. I had a status that doing routine chores in my house did not provide — and it earned me a slow smile and confirmations that I was adult-like, not childlike.

Little by little, I got better at cleaning her house — good enough to be given more to do. After struggling to move the piano, my limbs ached terribly. Despite wanting to decline or voice my discomfort, I feared losing my job and the independence and respect it afforded me. She began to offer me her clothes, for a price. Impressed by these worn things, which looked simply elegant to a little girl who had only two dresses to wear to school, I bought a few.

Still I had trouble summoning up (鼓起) the courage to object to the increasing demands she made. Despite feeling overwhelmed, I hesitated to voice my concerns, knowing my mother would urge me to quit. However, one day while alone in the kitchen with my father, I expressed my disappointment. In any case, he put down his cup of coffee and said, "Whatever the work is, do it well — not for the boss but for yourself. You make the job; it doesn't make you. You are not the work you do; you are the person you are."

I have worked for all sorts of people since then, geniuses and fools, quick-witted and dull, big-hearted and narrow. I've had many kinds of jobs, but since that conversation with my father, I have never considered the level of labor to be the measure of myself, and I have never placed the security of a job above my self-worth and family value.

The Beauty of Creative Friendships

I recently walked through an incredible exhibition in Venice. It 1 about 75 art works that a Dutch-American artist created during the time he spent in Italy in 1959 and 1969. The pieces on show included his ink-on-paper drawings, some gestural drawings, landscapes and sculptures.

Born in 1904, de Kooning spent the majority of his artistic career as a (n) 2 but in 1969, while visiting Rome, he 3 an old friend, the sculptor Herzl Emanuel, who invited him to his studio and 4 him to try working with 5 .

At age 65, de Kooning 6 his first sculptural works, 13 small clay items. It was the 7 of a new artistic era for him and, over the next 15 years, sculpture became a (n) 8 and inseparable part of his career.

Later, after I left the exhibition, I was 9 by how beautiful it was that de Kooning began making sculpture because of the initial 10 and encouragement of his 11 . It got me thinking about the often unacknowledged role that some friendships play in the creative process of 12 across all types.

We often think about those friendships that journey deeply with us in our private lives, 13 us through emotional ups and downs. But friendships that develop our professional selves are also 14 .In offering courage, insight and clarity on the work that we produce, these friendships 15 the overall quality of our lives.