Catching Each Splendid Moment
人人都辛勤地耕种花园，使它日渐丰实。整个夏天，我们一家人吃着花园种出的食物，欣赏着花园里的美丽花朵。
At the Seaside在海边
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore
My holes were empty like a cup
In every hole the sea came up
Till it could come no more
Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And a pleasant land
当我在海边嬉戏
我用他们给我的木铲
挖那松软的沙地
我挖的小洞像是一个茶杯
从那里海水慢慢浮起
直到它去无可去
小小的水滴
小小的沙粒
汇集成无际的大海
和美丽的土地
The Words From the Heart孩子的心声
A gray sweater hung limply on Tommy’s empty desk, a reminder of the dejected boy who had just followed his classmates from our third-grade room. Soon Tommy’s parents, who had recently separated, would arrive for a conference on his failing schoolwork and disruptive behavior. Neither parent knew that I had summoned the other.
Tommy, an only child, had always been happy, cooperative and an excellent student. How could I convince his father and mother that his recent failing grades represented a broken-hearted child’s reaction to his adored parents’ separation and pending divorce?
Tommy’s mother entered and took one of the chairs I had placed near my desk. Soon the father arrived. Good! At least they were concerned enough to be prompt. A look of surprise and irritation passed between them, and then they pointedly ignored each other.
As I gave a detailed account of Tommy’s behavior and schoolwork, I prayed for the right words to bring these two together, to help them see what they were doing to their son. But somehow the words wouldn’t come. Perhaps if they saw one of his smudged, carelessly done papers.
I found a crumpled tear-stained sheet stuffed in the back of his desk, an English paper. Writing covered both sides—not the assignment, but a single sentence scribbled over and over.
Silently I smoothed it out and gave it to Tommy’s mother. She read it and then without a word handed it to her husband. He frowned. Then his face softened. He studied the scrawled words for what seemed an eternity.
At last he folded the paper carefully, placed it in his pocket, and reached for his wife’s outstretched hand. She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled up at him. My own eyes were brimming, but neither seemed to notice. He helped her with her coat and they left together.
In his own way God had given me the words to reunite that family. He had guided me to the sheet of yellow copy paper covered with the anguished outpouring of a small boy’s troubled heart.
The words, “Dear Mom...Dear Daddy...I love you...I love you...I love you.”
一件灰色套衫搭在汤米的空桌上，让人想起这个情绪低落的男孩，他刚随同学从三年级教室出去。汤米最近分居的父母马上就要来学校，讨论他每况愈下的学习成绩和捣蛋行为。父母双方都不知道对方要来。
汤米是个独子，一直生活幸福，乐意合作，而且是个出色的学生。我怎能使他的父母相信他近来学习成绩下降是一个心碎的孩子对他敬爱的父母分居和即将离异的反应呢？
汤米的母亲进屋后坐在我放在我桌旁的其中一把椅子上。不一会儿他的父亲也来了。不错！至少他们还够关心他，能准时来校。他们之间交换了一下惊奇和气恼的眼色，然后明显流露出无视对方的神色。
我详细叙述汤米的表现和学习情况，苦苦寻求恰当的词语以图把他们俩撮合在一起，帮助他们认识到他们的所作所为给孩子造成的后果。但是不知怎么的就是找不到适当的话，或许如果他们看看汤米的一纸脏污、漫不经心写的作业……
我在他桌子深处找到一张皱巴巴的满是泪迹的纸。那是张英语作业纸，正反两面潦潦草草地写满了字，但不是布置的作业，而是翻来覆去的一句话。
我默默地把它捋平，递给了汤米的母亲。她看完后没吭一声给了她丈夫。他先是皱着眉，而后脸色变温和了。他仔细盯着潦草的字看了似乎无穷无尽的一段时间。
最后，他小心翼翼地折起纸，把它放进口袋里，手伸向他妻子伸出的手。她擦去眼里的泪水，抬头朝她的丈夫露出笑容。我也热泪盈眶，但是他们俩谁也没注意到。汤米的父亲帮妻子穿上大衣，然后俩人一起走了出去。
上帝以自己的方式给了我使这一家破镜重圆的词语，他把我引向了那张满是一个小男孩苦恼心情的痛苦倾诉的黄色作业纸。
那张纸上写着：“亲爱的妈妈……亲爱的爸爸……我爱你们……我爱你们……我爱你们。”
There Is a Pot of Gold Hidden in the Orchard藏在果园里的金子
There was once a farmer who had a fine olive orchard. He was very hardworking, and the farm always prospered under his care. But he knew that his three sons despised the farm work, and were eager to make wealth, trough adventure.
When the farmer was old, and felt that his time had come to die, he called the three sons to him and said, “My sons, there is a pot of gold hidden in the olive orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it.”
The sons tried to get him to tell them in what part of the orchard the gold was hidden; but he would tell them nothing more.
After the farmer was dead, the sons went to work to find the pot of gold; since they did not know where the hiding-place was, they agreed to begin in a line, at one end of the orchard, and to dig until one of them should find the money.
They dug until they had turned up the soil from one end of the orchard to the other, round the tree-roots and between them. But no pot of gold was to be found. It seemed as if someone must have stolen it, or as if the farmer had been wandering in his wits. The three sons were bitterly disappointed to have all their work for nothing.
The next olive season, the olive trees in the orchard bore more fruit than they had ever given; when it was sold, it gave the sons a whole pot of gold.
And when they saw how much money had come from the orchard, they suddenly understood what the wise father had meant when he said, “There is gold hidden in the orchard. Dig for it, if you wish it.”
从前有一个农民，他有一座漂亮的橄榄园。他非常勤劳，而且农场在他的照管下蒸蒸日上。可他知道自己的三个儿子瞧不起农活，都迫不及待地想通过冒险发家致富。
这个农民上了年纪，感到死期快要来临时，将三个儿子叫到身边说：“儿子们，橄榄园里藏有一罐金子。你们想要，就去挖吧。”
儿子们想让父亲告诉他们金子藏在果园的那一块地方，可他什么也没再给他们说。
那个农民死后，三个儿子就开始挖地，想找到那罐金子；因为他们不知道金子藏在什么地方，所以他们一致同意排成一行从果园的一头开始挖起，直到其中一人挖到金子为止。
他们挖啊挖，从果园的一头一直挖到了另一头，果树周围和果树之间也都挖到了，可还是没有找到那罐金子。看来一定是有人已经把那罐金子偷走了，要么就是他们的父亲一直在异想天开。三个儿子对他们白干了一场，感到大失所望。