【推荐3】Just over two years ago, at the age of 54, mv life changed tracks. Up until that point I had my parents and a family. I knew who I was. Then my mother, Diane, after a huge stroke (中风), decided to get something off her chest. And it turned out that my late father Richard, who had died in 2014, wasn’t actually my father.

At first there was sadness, then confusion and anger. One question was running around my head — who am I? Obviously I asked my mother tons of questions but she wouldn’t give me any details. Just a name, a time and a place: John Pritchard, 1966, Brighton. I asked if John knew about me. No, she never told him. Wow! Not only had I been robbed of a father, he’d also been robbed of a son.

I was chasing around like a madman, exploring all sorts of ancestry (世系) websites. Then a friend of mine suggested I get an unlocked DNA test and see what happens. So I did and a few weeks later, I got the results — a 100 percent parent DNA match. The next thing I did before I knew it was to sit in front of the computer, trying to send my dad an email.

But to be honest, all I did was sit there staring at the screen, typing and deleting. How do you write the most important email of your life? I put it gently and slowly, revealing what I’d found out. Luckily, John considerately replied, which was a huge relief, and we agreed to meet up.

So there I am, a man in his fifties, with a recently broken history, on a train to London to meet my real father. We had a long hug but there were no tears it was as if all the emotion was too big to grasp. We said hello, had a beer and talked about ordinary stuff, like we’d known each other for years. We’d both been firemen, and we were into motorbikes. What struck me was how easy it was to talk to him. We quickly fell into a pattern of texting each other, then ringing a couple of times a week. And now we are planning to go on a holiday in France together.

Through no fault of our own we lost each other a long time ago and that’s where the story could have ended. But fate has given us a second chance. So my advice for you? Don’t waste your time regretting the loss of the past — live in the present.

【推荐2】We first encountered the hermit (隐士) in the summer during a holiday on the rugged southwest coast of Scotland. I was waiting for a bus from Bennane Hill Caravan Site with my mum and my brothers, Abel and Kevin.

It was Kevin, then aged five, who spotted him first and broke the silence excitedly shouting out that he’d seen a “tramp” (流浪汉) and pointing him out. I was thrilled to look up and see that there was indeed a tramp strolling along the road opposite us dressed in rags.

My poor mum was embarrassed, scolding Kevin, and saying it was a terrible thing to call someone. When he pointed out that the man must be a tramp because his clothes were all brown, she countered that maybe brown was his favourite colour. We weren’t buying it. He was a tramp.

There’s not much recorded about Snib. He seemed to live a normal life until his thirties. It is said that he worked as a banker in Dundee and was well paid, well respected and engaged to be married. The great mystery of this story, and indeed the making of it, is that Snib suddenly walked away from everything at the age of 33 and no one seems to know why.

Snib’s cave was massive. In his cave, burning the driftwood he collected from the shore, Snib had the shelter he needed. There was an abundant local supply of rabbits, fish and potatoes for nourishment. For anything else he needed, Snib exchanged bottles he collected on the shore for goods at a local shop in Ballantrae.

Snib never took on the worries of promotion, status or ownership of a fancy car. But on his daily commute along the beach in rags seeking only the simple things in life, he was surrounded by beauty and regarded with respect. Even now I sometimes wonder if Snib is one of the wealthiest people I’ve ever met.

【推荐3】In honor of National Writing Day in the UK, actor Benedict Cumberbatch sat down at a desk and with the wisdom of his 39 years, he penned a letter to Santa Claus. You can read the letter in full—including the one gift the actor still really wants—below.

Like most adults I feel embarrassed asking anything of you because our time with you is surely gone. Now we get our own presents, take responsibility for our own actions, and live in the world we have created. So it's not for us to turn around and ask for your help with the environment, education, food banks, human rights and wars. Though we need all the help we can get with all these man-made problems.

And it's not that you're not kind-hearted. You're great because you are for the children who need some magic in a world where playful imagination and innocence(纯真)are decreasing.

This is what I'd like to ask you to help with. A little more time for children to be children. Lengthening the moment of magic and playfulness. Keep them away from the realities of a world that's gone mad, especially those suffering illness or hunger or shaking with fear or cold because of environmental disasters or wars. Please help to light up their worlds with a moment of joy and hope.

You do inspire wonder among those who write you letters and go to sleep hoping there might be a new object in their possession coming down. You inspire good behavior.

I feel a little sorry. And I guess I've done exactly what I said I wouldn't... Asked you to help with adult problems and solve some of the greatest worries we have for our children. I promise to leave some delicious pies for you!"

【推荐2】I was 13 or 14. It was summer. We lived in an old house with no screens on the window in the attic (阁楼), where my sister and I slept in the same bed. While thinking about how I might escape, I leaned sideways, and my hand landed on a floorboard that popped up (突然爆开) and almost hit me in the head. When I looked inside the open space, I could not believe my eyes: There was gold in there! I picked up a handful of gold cubes (方块) and ran to the bottom stair and yelled, “Mama — I found gold up here under the floor!” Mama simply said, “Chile, that’s insulation. Now put it all back.”

When I reached inside, my hand touched what felt like a book. I pulled it out. It was Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. And since I was bored, I decided to see what was inside this book.

On the top left- and right-hand corners of each page was a word or phrase. I opened it to “comfort” and then “comfort and despair”, and then farther down was “comfortable”. I remembered “Doubt” “Peace” “Hope and Hopeful”. I had discovered that I was not alone in some of the things I felt and thought: What does grief feel like? What is the value and power of dreams?

In ninth grade, I got my first job, as a page at our local library. I often hid in the ladies’ room, where no one would see me, and I would read. It was at this library that I realized how some of those emotions I’d felt while reading Bartlett’s came to life in the characters I had started discovering in novels.

When I went to college, Bartlett’s came with me. Over the years, I’ve kept my original copy, and to this day I often refer to it. I have bought a few of the newer editions, but the first one is the one that helped me see more than what my young mind was able to understand.

【推荐3】An acquaintance of mine is a lawyer. He told this story to me about ten years ago.

He was handling the case of a man who passed away and left his house to his twenty-five-year-old son. After paying off all the expenses, the son was left with about $ 40, 000. My friend drew up a check and gave it to the son, who left the office with the check. About a minute later, he came back in and asked if my friend was able to do an electronic deposit (存款) of the money to his checking account.

My friend agreed and they completed the process, which took about fifteen or twenty minutes. After they were done, the son thanked and went on his way.

A week later, my lawyer friend started getting a lot of calls from people he had given checks to during the past week to ten days, saying the checks were repudiated by the bank. After calling his bank, he found out that the man who left with the check for only about a minute used the mobile banking app on his phone and made the deposit that way. Then, he came back in, got the electronic transfer money, and ended up with $80,000 instead of $40,000. He then immediately closed his account as soon as he had the money, got a bank check for the balance, and left for somewhere in Europe the next day. This all but wiped out my friend’s checking account. He had almost a dozen check payments that he had to reissue, which took him several weeks to do.

My friend changed his procedures from then on. He tells all clients now what their options are for receiving their money, but once they choose one and leave the building, their choice can’t be changed.