I walked to Mrs. Windsor's house and waited outside. She was working with another student, and I was not supposed to bother them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and daydreamed what I'd rather be doing. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn't have a gift for it. Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons for free, so I felt my duty to try.
The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to sort through my sheet music. Today Mrs. Windsor introduced her niece Pasha to teach me. With a smile, Pasha sat beside me on the piano bench, opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I arranged my fingers on the keys. Then I frowned(皱眉) and concentrated to make the notes on the page match the finger movements. I had to admit I was a rather mechanical (呆板的) pianist.
After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as if to calm my fingers. There was a long pause. "What are you hearing in the music?" I looked at her rather strangely and admitted I didn't know what she meant. "Like a story. Here, let me try and you listen," Pasha advised.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers dance lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. "See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?"
Her fingers rose and fell gently on the keys. "Now the princess appears and she's picking flowers from the water's edge." A happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha's dancing fingers. "Oh, but she slips!" The music changed. "And our princess is being carried off by the fast-flowing stream. Quickly, the princess' horse sees her plight (困境) and races to the river's edge where he swims out to let her catch hold of him. Luckily, they make it to the bank." Pasha said.
I played many pieces of music that afternoon, finding the stories in the music and learning that sometimes it takes a friend to pull you out of the river onto dry land again.
“Let's have a journey. Why not fly out and meet me, Dad?” I say one day.
My father had just retired after 27 years as a manager for IBM. His job filled his day, his thoughts, and his life. While he woke up and took a warm shower, I screamed under a freezing waterfall in Peru. While he tied a tie and put on the same Swiss watch, I rowed a boat across Lake of the Ozarks.
My father sees me drifting aimlessly, nothing to show for my 33 years but a passport full of funny stamps. He wants me to settle down, but now I want him to find an adventure.
He agrees to travel with me through the national parks. We meet four weeks later in Rapid City.
“What's our first stop？” asks my father.
“What time is it？”
“Still don't have a watch？”
Less than an hour away is Mount Rushmore. As he stares up at the four Presidents carved in granite(花岗岩), his mouth and eyes open slowly, like those of a little boy.
“Unbelievable,” he says. “How was this done？”
A film in the information center shows sculptor Gutzon Borglum devoted 14 years to the sculpture and then left the final touches to his son.
We stare up and I ask myself, “Would I ever devote my life to anything？”
No directions, no goals. I always used to hear those words in my father's voice. Now I hear them in my own.
The next day we're at Yellowstone National Park, where we have a picnic.
“Did you ever travel with your dad？” I ask.
“Only once,” he says. “I never spoke much with my father. We loved each other — but never said it. Whatever he could give me, he gave.”
That last sentence — it's probably the same thing I'd say about my father. And what I'd want my child to say about me.
In Glacier National Park, my father says, “I've never seen water so blue.” I have, in several places of the world. I can keep traveling, I realize — and maybe a regular job won't be as dull as I feared.
Weeks after our trip, I call my father.
“The photos from the trip are wonderful,” he says. “We've got to take another trip like that sometime.”
I tell him I've decided to settle down, and I'm wearing a watch.
Perhaps you think you could easily add to your happiness with more money. Strange as it may seem, if you're unsatisfied, the issue is not a lack of means to meet your desires but a lack of desires—not that you cannot satisfy your tastes but that you don't have enough tastes.
Real riches consist of well-developed and hearty capacities (能力) to enjoy life. Most people are already swamped (淹没) with things. They eat, wear, go and talk too much. They live in too big a house with too many rooms, yet their house of life is a hut（草棚）.Your house of life ought to be a mansion (豪宅), a royal palace. Every new taste, every additional interest, every fresh enthusiasm adds a room. Here are several rooms your house of life should have.
Art should be a desire for you to develop simply because the world is full of beautiful things. If you only understood how to enjoy them and feed your spirit on them, they would make you as happy as to find plenty of ham and eggs when you're hungry.
Literature, classic literature, is a beautiful, richly furnished room where you might find many an hour of rest and refreshment. To gain that love would go toward making you a rich person, for a rich person is not someone who has a library but who likes a library.
Music like Mozart's and Bach's shouldn't be absent. Real riches are of the spirit. And when you've brought that spirit up to where classical music feeds it and makes you a little drunk, you have increased your thrills(excitement) and bettered them. And life is a matter of thrills.
Sports, without which you remain poor, mean a lot in life. No matter who you are, you would be more human, and your house of life would be better supported against the bad days, if you could, and did, play a bit.
Whatever rooms you might add to your house of life, the secret of enjoying life is to keep adding.
R. U. Darby and his uncle were digging for gold in the West. After weeks of labor, he was rewarded when he discovered shining ore(矿石). He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. So he borrowed money from his relatives and neighbors and went back to work on the mine.
The first car of ore was mined and sent to a smelter. The gold that they got in return proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big profits.
Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! The pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again, but they found nothing.
Finally, they decided to quit. They sold the machinery to a man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. That man asked a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer said that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines(裂纹线)”. His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where it was found.
The man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to ask for expert advice before giving up.
R.U. Darby was struggling for years to pay back the money from his relatives and neighbors. He went into the business of selling life insurance.
Remembering that he lost a huge fortune because he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited from the experience in his chosen work, by the simple method of saying to himself , “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say 'no' when I ask them to buy insurance.”
Darby is part of a small group of fewer than 50 men who sell more than a million dollars in life insurance every year. His “stick-ability” comes from the lesson he learned from his “quit-ability” in the gold mining business.
Once upon a time, a daughter complained to her father that her life was unhappy and that she was tired of struggling all the time.
Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes, eggs and coffee beans in them. After 20 minutes, he took them out, putting the potatoes and eggs in a bowl and the coffee in a cup. Turning to his daughter, he said, “Look closer, and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. Its good smell brought a smile to her face.
“Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and the coffee beans were in the same adversity (逆境)—the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.
The strong and hard potato became soft and weak in boiling water. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. “Which one do you want to be like?” he asked. “When adversity knocks on your door, how will you respond?”
In life, challenges happen to us all, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.
The world is filled with smart ，educated and gifted people. We meet them every day. A few days ago ，my car was not running well. I pulled it into a garage and the young mechanic fixed it in just a few minutes. He knew what was wrong by simply listening to the engine sound. I was amazed. The sad truth is that great talent is not enough.
I am constantly shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of Americans earn more than $100，000 a year. A business consultant who specializes in the medical trade told me how many doctors and dentists struggle financially. It was this business consultant （顾问）who gave me the phrase ，“They are one skill away from great wealth.”
There is an old saying that goes，“JOB means 'Just Over Broke（破产）”. And unfortunately，I would say that the saying applies to millions of people. Because schools do not think financial intelligence is intelligence，most workers “live within their means”. They work and they pay the bills. Instead I recommend that young people seek work for what they will learn ，more than what they will earn.
When I ask the classes I teach ，“How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald's ？ ” almost all the students raise their hands.I then ask ，“So if most of you can cook a better hamburger ，how come McDonald's makes more money than you？” The answer is obvious: McDonald's is excellent at business systems.The world is filled with talented poor people.They focus on perfecting their skills at building a better hamburger rather than the skills of selling and delivering the hamburger.
It was many years ago. I was a young dad sitting on the couch reading a fairy tale to my little girl. She sat next to me with her head on my arm as I told the tale. When it came to the end I finished with those famous words: "And they lived happily ever after." As I looked over to her with her wavy(鬈曲的), brown hair and big, innocent eyes I could see the smile on her face and I never wanted it to end. Then it dawned on me that the ending of the book was what I wanted for her. I wanted her to "live happily ever after".
Still, deep in my heart I knew that this couldn't always be so. I knew that there would be times when her heart was broken. I knew there would be times when she cried in grief and I couldn't comfort her. I knew there would be times when all she felt was fear, sadness, sorrow, and despair. As I stroked her hair and smiled at her I hoped that those times would be brief and that she would have joy in her life more often than not. Living happily ever after, though, seemed out of the question.
It takes me a lot of years to realize that it is possible to live happily ever after. You just have to do it "one day at a time". Happiness you see isn't some reward that you get at the end of your journey. Happiness isn't something that depends on what life you own. Happiness is something you create in your life choice by choice and day by day.
The truth is happiness comes when you love. Love is a gift from God. It is love that mends broken hearts. It is love that heals grief. It is love that gives us joy. Choose to "live happily ever after, one day at a time".
After I was married and had lived in Japan for while, my Japanese gradually improved to the point where I could take part in simple conversations with my husband and his friends and family. And I began to notice that often, when I joined in, the others would look surprised, and the conversational topic would come to a stop. After this happened several times, it became clear to me that I was doing something wrong. But for a long time, I didn't know what it was.
Finally, after listening carefully to many Japanese conversations, I discovered what my problem was. Even though I was speaking Japanese, I was handling the conversation in a Western way.
A Western-style conversation between two people is like a game of tennis. If I introduce a topic, a conversational ball, I expect you to hit it back. If you agree with me, I don't expect you simply to agree and do nothing more. I expect you to add something-a reason for agreeing, another example, or a detailed explanation to carry the idea further. But I don't expect you always to agree. I am just as happy if you question me, or challenge me, or completely disagree with me. Whether you agree or disagree, your response will return the ball to me.
A Japanese-style conversation, however, is not at all like tennis or volleyball. It's like bowling. You wait for your turn. And you always know your place in line. It depends on such things as whether you are older or younger, a close friend or a relative stranger to the previous speaker, in a senior or junior position, and so on.
When your turn comes, you step up to the starting line with your bowling ball and carefully bowl it. Everyone else stands back and watches politely, murmuring encouragement. Everyone waits until the ball has reached the end of the alley（球场）and watches to see if it knocks down all the pins, or only some of them, or none of them. There is a pause, while everyone registers your score.
Then, after everyone is sure that you have completely finished your turn, the next person in line steps up to the same starting line, with a different ball. He doesn't return your ball, and he does not begin from where your ball stopped. And there is always a suitable pause between turns. There is no rush, no scramble for the ball.
If you have been trained all your life to play one game, it is no simple matter to switch to another, even if you know the rules. Knowing the rules is not at all the same thing as playing the game.
There is a beautiful story I heard once about a child playing with a vase(花瓶) his mother had left on the table for a few moments. When the mother turned at the sound of her son crying, she saw that his hand was in the vase and was apparently stuck. She tried to help him and pulled and pulled until the child cried out in pain. But the hand was stuck fast. How would they get it out? The father suggested breaking the vase but it was quite valuable and the child's hand might be cut in the process. Yet he knew that if all else failed, there would be no other alternative. So he said to the boy, "Now, let's make one more try. Open your hand and stretch your fingers out straight, like I'm doing, and then pull!" "But Dad," said the boy, "if I do that, I'll lose my penny!"
The boy had had a coin in his hand all the time and was holding it securely in his tight little fist. And he wasn't prepared to open his hand and lose the penny. But once he opened his hand, it came out of the vase easily.
I used to hold on to things in my life that I thought were so important to me. Early in my marriage, all I cared about was becoming the best volleyball player in the state of Wisconsin. One year, when Kristi was working shifts at General Motors, I played in 1,400 games, competing four nights a week and 40 out of 52 weekends. My team won over 1,000 games. Success on the volleyball court, but a huge loss in my relationship with my Kristi.
When I finally let go, I looked back at what I had done and was ashamed. Not only did I show my wife she wasn't the most important thing to me, but I missed out on a lot of relationship building time. My life is so much richer now that I am not a slave to that drive to be the best player I could be.
Ten years ago I used to be very fit (健康的). I rode a bike to work and I got a lot of exercise at weekends. I used to play tennis a lot and go for long walks. In those days I didn't earn very much. I had a job in an office. It wasn't a very good job but I had a lot of time to do the things I enjoyed doing.
Then, about eight years ago, I got a much better job. The pay was better, but the hours were a lot longer. I bought a car and drove to work every day. I began to take people out to lunch. And I began to put on weight, too. I stopped playing tennis and going for long walks at weekends because I just didn't have any time for things like that any more.
There's a lot of stress (压力) in my job. Perhaps that's why I started drinking more than I used to. For example, I used to have only half a glass of whisky when I got home, but then I started filling my glass to the top, and instead of having one glass, I would have several. I started smoking a lot, too. I never used to smoke at all.
Two months ago I had a heart attack. At first I just couldn't believe it. Luckily it wasn't very serious. The doctor advised me to stop smoking and to eat less. He also advised me to work less and get more exercise. But I just haven't any time! My job takes everything out of me!
Sometimes I wonder if I should get another job. Perhaps I could do something like I used to do. But if I do that, I won't earn as much. I have a family to support. I have to think of them, too. I just don't know what I should do. What do you think?
I've been taking time this week to smell the roses. Literally, I bend over in my neighbors' front yard, check that nobody is watching, and then bury my head in the flowers.
I've also been walking into bakeries and walking around without buying anything. After having surgery on my broken nose 18 months ago, I haven't been able to smell or taste things. This week, however, my nose is back in business. I've been overwhelmed by smells, and it's given me a new way of thinking. Scent is just one of the little bits and pieces that make life enjoyable, but which we often ignore. I remember once, when my son was five months old, I was carrying him down the street. Wind swept through and almost tipped us over. He threw his little head back and giggled. He'd never felt the wind on his face. When is the last time I laughed at the weather?
The first time I ate bacon, I rushed home to my parents, determined that we ate this deliciousness at every meal. My father smiled and agreed. Do you recall when you learned that the voice actors of Mickey and Minnie Mouse were married in real life? Do you enjoy sleeping in new clean bedsheets? Is there someone on the radio whose voice is as smooth as velvet?
We don't write postcards about the small things. We don't frame them in photo-graphs. They aren't that great or grand, but without them, life is altogether too loud. These quiet experiences give us a chance to enjoy the simple fact of being alive. As my sense of smell returns to me, it's like I'm smelling things for the first time. They're full of memories and magic. Food tastes better, and the air is indeed sweet. I know what the poets mean now. It almost makes my broken nose worthwhile. Now, I am waiting for this bandage to come off. There's an itch I can't reach!
A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her, she did not know she was going to make it and want to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.
Her father, a cook, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and in the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them on a plate. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a glass. Turning to her he asked, "Darling, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee." she replied
He brought her closer and asked her to the carrots, she did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to taste the coffee. She smiled, as she tasted it.
"What does it mean, Father?" she asked. He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity—boiling water, but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong and hard. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it's softened and weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior (内部), but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique; however, after they were in the boiling water, they changed the water.
"Which are you?" he asked his daughter. When adversity knocks on your door in your life, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
A British friend told me he couldn't understand why Chinese people love eating sunflower seeds (嗑瓜子) as a snack so much. "I've met a lot of older Chinese and many have a crack in their front teeth, I believe that's from cracking the seeds," he said.
I had never noticed the habit, but once he mentioned it, I suddenly became more aware. I realized that whenever I'm watching TV or typing a report, I always start mindlessly cracking sunflower seeds. My friend doesn't like sunflower seeds, and, to him, it seems unnecessary to work so much just to get one small seed.
When we were young, the whole family would usually get together for Chinese New Year. Then, we all lived close to one another, usually in a small city, and sometimes even neighbors would go door-to-door on Chinese New Year's Eve to check out what every household was making.
I remember my parents would be in the kitchen cooking. Out in the living room, a large table would already be laid out, complete with fancy tablecloth, ready-made dumpling fillings, and dishes full of candy, fruits and sunflower seeds. Some of the dishes were to be offered to our ancestors later, while others were for neighbors and children to eat before the evening feast. I must have learned how to crack sunflower seeds back then.
I don't think it's right to criticize one's choice in food or eating habits, no matter how strange they may seem.
It's not only in China. When I went abroad, I found people had all sorts of strange habits when it came to food. In Denmark, they put salted red fish on bread and eat it for dinner, no matter how much it ruins your breath. They think it's。delicacy (美味佳肴), and it's connected to their certain culture. I think it's a wonderful tradition.
Earlier last month, when a young woman and a male friend were meeting up at a coffee shop in Tianjin, another man tried to chat her up and asked her for her WeChat ID.
The woman politely turned down the man's request but a few days later she got to know that a video of her at the coffee shop had been posted on a short video-sharing platform. The woman was furious as the man who had tried to chat her up had not told her he was making a video nor taken her permission before uploading the video. She left a comment under the video, asking for its removal, and even reported the matter to the platform's handlers. The account that posted the video was soon disabled.
However, this case is far from alone. Websites dealing in short-videos are filled with accounts that post such videos showing "how to chat up women". Their purpose is to post such videos for money.
Taking a video of someone without their permission and uploading it violates (侵害) someone's right to privacy, but such videos are being made and uploaded online with increasing frequency. It was only because the woman in this instance complained that the video of her was removed. What if her attention had not been drawn to the video? One just has to browse these sites to find many such videos.
Obviously, there are loopholes in the supervision (监管漏洞) of some short-video platforms, as they are uploading contents that violate other people's right to privacy.
Women need to watch out if a stranger tries to chat them up. If they suspect the person interacting with them might have a hidden camera somewhere, they should consider calling the police to better protect their right to privacy.
My dad passed away peacefully at home yesterday, surrounded by his family.
We are feeling grief but also gratitude. My dad's passing was not unexpected—he was 94 and his health had been failing—so we have all had a long time to reflect on just how lucky we are to have had this amazing man in our lives for so many years.
My dad had a great influence on my drive. When I was a kid, he never let me put very little effort into things I was good at, and he always pushed me to try things I hated. He modeled an amazing work ethic (道德准则) as one of the hardest-working and most respected lawyers in Seattle.
My dad's influence on our philanthropy (慈善行为) was just big. Throughout my childhood, he and my mom taught me by example what generosity looked like in how they used their time and resources. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would not be what it is today without my dad. More than anyone else, he shaped the values of the foundation.
Finally, my dad had a positive influence on my most important roles—husband and father. When I am at my best, I know it is because of what I learned from my dad about respecting women and guiding children's choices with love and respect.
Dad wrote me a letter on my 50th birthday. "Over time," he wrote," I have told you and others not to overuse the adjective 'incredible'. This is a word with huge meaning to be used only in extraordinary settings. What I want to say, here, is simply that the experience of being your father has been...incredible.”
I know he would not want me to overuse the word, but there is no danger of doing that now. The experience of being the son of Bill Gates was INCREDIBLE. People used to ask my dad if he was the real Bill Gates. The truth is, he was everything I try to be. I will miss him every day.
I began to grow up that winter night when my parents and I were returning from my aunt's house, and my mother said that we might soon be leaving for America. We were on the bus then. I was crying, and some people on the bus were turning around to look at me. I remember that I could not bear the thought of never hearing again the radio program for school children to which I listened every morning.
I do not remember myself crying for this reason again. In fact, I think I cried very little when I was saying goodbye to my friends and relatives. When we were leaving I thought about all the places I was going to see—the strange and magical places I had known only from books and pictures. The country I was leaving and never to come back was hardly in my head then.
The four years that followed taught me the importance of optimism, but the idea did not come to me at once. For the first two years in New York I was really lost—having to study in three schools as a result of family
moves, I did not quite know what I was or what I should be. Mother remarried, and things became even more complex for me. Some time passed before my stepfather and I got accustomed to each other. I was often sad, and saw no end to"the hard times".
My responsibilities in the family increased a lot since I knew English better than everyone else at home. I wrote letters, filled out forms, translated at interviews with Immigration officers, took my grandparents to the doctor and translated there, and even discussed telephone bills with company representatives.
From my experiences I have learned one important rule: Almost all common troubles go away at last! Something good is certain to happen in the end when you do not give up, and just wait a little! I believe that my life will turn out all right, even though it will not be that easy.
Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you'll have no trouble answering these questions.
Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child's day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear;we are numb(麻木的) to new stimulation(刺激), new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.
The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realised it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they'd felt cold water at first.
Another block to awareness is the obsession(痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a "ruby-crowned kinglet" and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.
The pressures of "time" and "destination" are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what's around them. I asked them what they'd seen. "Oh, a few birds, " they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.
Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.
It happened on a rainy Saturday morning last month. My wife Catherine and I were driving along what some people called moose alley（麋鹿通道）. It was so early that there were few cars on the road. Suddenly, something happened. A moose jumped out across our path. I had been driving for years and was good at driving. In order to avoid knocking into the moose, I made a quick turn to the other lane. If I had not done that, the moose might have been killed, and my wife and I might have got injured，too. A few seconds later, when stopped and looked back in my rear view mirror, the moose was getting up and then ran into the bush. Shaken but fine, we both looked at each other with a surprised expression.
From then on, I often thought about the relationship between humans and wildlife. We know that animal species（物种） have appeared and disappeared continually since life began on the Earth. It is quite natural. However, animal species have been decreasing at a much faster rate for about a century now because of human factors (因素) such as pollution.
Certain philosophers and scientists keep repeating that if we don't save animals, how we will be able to save ourselves. A better knowledge of animals gives us a better understanding of our own species. The will to protect animals and nature in general shows the value of a society. And all animals play roles in nature and have a right to survive. Therefore, I think we should try our best to save endangered animals, because humans cannot live on the Earth alone.
Since last March, I have been visiting a pet clinic because of my cat Eddie. The clinic is in northern Massachusetts, about two hours from our home on Cape Cod. I expected it would be terrible depressing but it's just the opposite. I have been so surprised at what I have learned there.
Now I believe happiness is something to love in any form. If I've ever know an angel, it is Keri, Eddie's technician. Both Eddie and I are under her loving care. She gives Eddie his medicines. She gives me emotional guidance as well.
I can offer tell when it's someone's first visit. They're usually crying. I think the reason why the rest of us don't cry has nothing to do with hope. I think it has to do with another ingredient of happiness. When we think about our pet's distant future, even if they're healthy, will feel sad. Keri, in her prayerful voice says, "Focus on loving Eddie right now." "Right now" is the only way people think at her clinic.
Instant connection is what happens in the waiting room. We join together to tenderly life a lame dog. We take turns distracting a cat with sparkly toys so she doesn't chew her bandage. Nobody asks for help. Everybody offers. We just do it.
When the end of life is very near, owners often believe their pet's happiness is more important than something like a strict diet. A young fellow whose pet dog suffers from canner says, "He can have anything he wants now." So I guess an element of happiness is not so much the length of a life but the joy and peace that life contains.
At this place, the focus is not on dying, and it's not on living. The focus, for pets and for people, is on living happily.
In the fall of 1985, I was a brighteyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twentyone years later I am still a brighteyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopted and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic—and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No.3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8! Our home was a complete zoo—a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college fulltime. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!
I am not special, just singleminded. It always struck me that when you're looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you're in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won't arrive in your life on one day. It's a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.
