3. I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone. She would practice dribbling and shooting over and over again, sometimes until dark. One day I asked her why she practiced so much. She looked directly in my eyes and without a moment of hesitation she said, “I want to go to college. The only way I can go is if I get a scholarship. I like basketball. I decided that if I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the best. My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.” Then she smiled and ran towards the court to recap the routine I had seen over and over again.
4. Well, I had to give it to her—she was determined. I watched her through those junior high years and into high school. Every week, she led her varsity team to victory.
5. One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled in her arms. I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly I asked what was wrong. “Oh, nothing,” came a soft reply. “I am just too short.” The coach told her that at5’5”she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team—much less offered a scholarship—so she should stop dreaming about college.
6. She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet. She lifted her head from her hands and told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just did not understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college, if she truly wanted a scholarship, that nothing could stop her except one thing — her own attitude. He told her again, “If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.”
7. The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was seen by a college recruiter. She was indeed offered a scholarship, a full ride, to a Division I, NCAA women’s basketball team. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years.
8. It’s true: If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.
1. 我以前常常从厨房的窗户看到她穿梭于操场上的一群男孩子中间，人群中她显得那么矮小。学校在我家的街对面，我可以经常看到孩子们在下课时间打球。尽管有一大群孩子，但我觉得她跟其他的孩子截然不同。
2. 我还记得第一天看她打篮球的情景。看着她在其他孩子旁边兜来转去，我感到十分惊奇。她总是尽力地跳起投篮，球恰好越过那些孩子的头顶飞入篮筐。那些男孩总是拼命地阻止她，但没有人做得到。
3. 我开始注意到她有时候一个人打球。她一遍遍地练习运球和投篮，有时练到天黑。有一天我问她为什么这么刻苦地练习，她直视着我的眼睛，不假思索地说:“我想上大学。只有获得奖学金我才能上大学。我喜欢打篮球，我想只要我打得好，就能获得奖学金。我要到大学去打篮球。我想成为最棒的球员。我爸爸告诉我说，心中有目标，风雨不折腰。”说完她笑了笑，跑向篮球场，又开始我之前见过的一遍又一遍的练习。
4. 嘿，我服了她了——她是下定了决心了。我看着她这些年从初中升到高中，每个星期，她带领的学校篮球代表队总能够获胜。
5. 高中那会儿的某一天，我看见她坐在草地上，头埋在臂弯里。我穿过街道，坐到她旁边的清凉的草地上。我轻轻地问她出什么事了。“哦，没什么，”她轻声回答，“只是我太矮了。”原来篮球教练告诉她，以她五英尺五英寸的身材，她几乎是没有机会到一流的球队去打球的——更不用说会获得奖学金了——所以她应该放弃想上大学的梦想。
6. 她很伤心，我也觉得自己的喉咙发紧，因为我感觉到了她的失望。我问她是否与她的爸爸谈过这件事。她从臂弯里抬起头，告诉我说，她爸爸说那些教练错了，他们根本不懂得梦想的力量。他告诉她，如果真的想到一个好的大学去打篮球，如果她真的想获得奖学金，任何东西也不能阻止她，除非她自己不愿意。他又一次跟她说：“心中有目标，风雨不折腰。”
7. 第二年，当她和她的球队去参加北加利福尼亚州冠军赛时，她被一位大学的招生人员看中了。她真的获得了奖学金，一个覆盖了全面资助的奖学金，并且进入美国全国大学体育协会中的一个女子甲组篮球队。她将接受她曾梦想并为之奋斗多年的大学教育。
8. 是的，心中有目标，风雨不折腰。
The Beginning 起点
1. In the beginning, all things are hopeful. We prepare ourselves to start anew. Though we may be intent on the magnificent journey ahead, all things are contained in the first moment: our optimism, our faith, our resolution, our innocence.
2. In order to start, we must make a decision. The decision is a commitment to daily self-cultivation. We must make a strong connection to our inner selves. Outside matters are superfluous. Alone and naked, we negotiate all of life’s travails. Therefore, we alone must make something of ourselves, transforming ourselves into the instruments for experiencing the deepest spiritual essence of life.
3. Once we make our decision, all things will come too us. Auspicious signs are not a superstition, but a confirmation. They are a response. It is said that if one chooses to pray to a rock with enough devotion, even that rock will come alive. In the same way, once we choose to commit ourselves to spiritual practice, even the mountains and valleys will reverberate to the sound of our decision.
1. 在起点上，所有的一切都充满希望。我们准备从头开始。尽管我们把注意力放在前方奇妙的旅途上，但开始那一刻的信心、观念、决心及率真已经决定了我们前方旅途的一切。
2. 为了这一时刻，我们必须先做一个决定。这个决定在我们日常的自我修养中早已形成。我们必须在它和自己内心深处建立一种紧密的联系。外部的一切都是多余的。我们劳其一生，最终依然是孤身赤裸裸归于尘土。因此，我们必须做点什么，引导我们自己去经历生活最深层的精神实质。
3. 一旦我们下定决心，一切都接踵而来了。吉兆的出现不是迷信，而是肯定。他们是对决心的回应。据说如果有人选择矢志不移地对岩石祈祷，那么岩石也会变得有生命。同样，如果我们选择坚定自己的精神旅途，即使高山和峡谷也会对我们的决心做出回应。
Your Quiet Hunger你寂静的渴望
1. There lies in the heart of every man and woman a quiet hunger：a longing for an earth shaking significance. It can be heard in the quiet, most unedited times like when our head hits the pillow at night. As the pressures of the day fade away the voice catches our attention: “I was meant for more than this, there has got to be something more.”
2. Many people have learned to accept a life of quiet resignation, committed to maintaining the status-quo. But still, in the times we least expect it, we hear that distant call again: a call for meaning, purpose, passion, significance. It continues to haunt us, to stalk us, and as we try to silence it with reason and maturity we find that indeed, it is a fire within our bones and it will not yield.
3. Our suspicions are correct. There is a larger story and we have a role to play in it. It has been said that what a man does during his life shall echo throughout eternity.