【推荐1】I have learned a great many things from playing football. And it has changed my entire attitude towards life.

In my freshman year at high school, I was shy, had low self-confidence and turned away from seemingly impossible challenges. On the first day of freshman practice, the team warmed up with a game of touch football. However, during the game, I didn't run as hard as I could, nor did I try to escape from my defender and get open. The fact of the matter was that I really didn't want to be the one at fault if I dropped the ball and the play didn't succeed. I didn't want to take the responsibility of helping the team because I was too afraid of making a mistake. That aspect of my character led the first year of my high school life. I avoided asking questions in class, afraid they might be considered too stupid by my classmates.

During my second-year season, my position at backup guard led me to play in the games since another backup guard on my team was seriously injured. From then on, I made mistakes sometimes and was blamed by my coaches indeed. However, those criticisms didn't make my teammates look down upon me, but they helped me a lot. At times I made great plays, for which I was congratulated. Now, I feel like a changed person.

Over the years, playing football has taught me what it takes to succeed. From months of tough practices, I have learned to work hard. From my coaches and teammates, I have learned to work well with others in a group. But most importantly, I have gained self-confidence. I realize that it is necessary to risk failure in order to gain success. Now, I welcome the challenge.

【推荐3】Whenever a new person walks through the gates of the Science of Spirituality Meditation (冥想) and Ecology Centre in Richmond, one often hears the words, “I never knew such a place existed. It’s so peaceful and the gardens are so beautiful.”

In 2005, this centre was an old school, with a history going back to 1904. Rabbits had damaged the foundations (地基) and rats ran along littered hallways. The traffic roaring along Steveston Highway was hardly beneficial to meditation, and fresh air! Neither did we have sufficient funds at the time to carry out a purchase. But there was hope, wild hope! We had a vision. We could make it a reality.

Our group was inspired to take this step under the loving guidance of Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, a living Master in an ancient family of spiritual experts. Despite the small size of our local charity, we took chances to purchase this place that spoke to us at some very deep level. Generous donations and effort flowed in from members at exactly the right time. Thus, we could begin the physical origins of the SOS Meditation and Ecology Centre.

And to create it took a great deal of sweat efforts. Gardens were dug and planted by volunteers. Brothers and sisters worked together. Over the following years, beautiful gardens were established and every inch of the old building and roof took on a new look.

From a wishful dream and a loving handful, this special place, with its green gardens, became a reality. The Centre has become a sign of light and love in a materialistic society, where seekers find peace, joy, help in meditation, friendship and an opportunity to grow spiritually.

【推荐2】After written art had to fight a tough battle for attraction during the first decade of social media, owing to a certain group of writers, it is now on a significant rise. How Instagram and Twitter have offered jumpstarts to careers of authors like Dean Cocozza sets a blueprint for thousands of ambitious writers.

Cocozza started writing lyrics for his music as a teenager. He immediately had to experience that translating art to social media is not as simple as posting whatever his pen put down.

“Anyone who uses the platform with an intent will quickly learn that you only have the glimpse of a moment to catch the viewer’s attention. So the work I shared shifted to be more to the point, often one-liners. Then stuff started to go viral.”

The success and demand for more poems resulted in his first book Zero Dark Thirty, which sold out quickly. Despite the book containing mostly short writings, even said one-liners, Cocozza emphasizes that he doesn’t write for social media. “It was a very personal project resulting from a certain period of time” in his life. There are much bigger things that he works on and plans to get involved in.

Dean Cocozza has brought back emotional depth. In-between monetized (货币化的) content, blatant (明目张胆的) advertising and “perfect lives”, social media holds a spot for a new generation of artists, including literature. Critical thinkers and authentic writers remind the app’s consumers of their emotional human nature. Art galleries and bookstores might have lost a big part of their audience to digital media — but the art itself will always find ways to survive.

【推荐3】Born on the 25th of February, 1841, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was the son of a painter. Renoir took an interest in painting early in his life; his family moved to Paris in 1844 and encouraged him to frequent the Louvre where he developed an interest in the French Rococo style of François Boucher and the Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix, admiring their loose brushstrokes (笔法) and emphasis on bright colours.

In 1862, Renoir began studying painting under Charles Gleyre, whose other pupils included Claude Monet, Frèdèric Bazille, and Alfred Sisley. These artists would form what would later be termed Impressionism. Although Renoir experienced some success exhibiting in the Salon, for example his 1867 painting, Lise with a Parasol, he frequently struggled to gain acceptance within the strict structure of the Salon. Renoir along with Monet, Sisley, and Pissarro put on the first ‘Impressionist’ exhibition.

The Impressionist painters often describe ordinary subject matter working en plein air (outdoors) to capture a spontaneous (自然的) moment. The style was characterised by broad loose brushstrokes, open composition and an interest in the effect of light. However, by 1878 Renoir had grown disillusioned (理想破灭的) with the Impressionists' emphasis on spontaneity. By the third Impressionist exhibition, his paintings, although still displaying an interest in the effect of light, presented a more carefully composed scene such as Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876.

In the 1880s, Renoir travelled to Italy where he came to admire the structural compositions and underdrawing of the Renaissance artists, in contrast to the en plein air technique favoured by the Impressionists. The trip to Italy had a crucial effect on his artistic style, moving his work towards more classical conceptions of draughtsmanship (绘画才能) and composition, as can be seen in his Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir died on the 3rd of December, 1919. Producing over two hundred works during his lifetime, Renoir greatly influenced later artists, ensuring his legacy (遗产) as one of the most influential artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.